JP7575387B2 - System and method for intra-UE multiplexing in New Radio (NR) - Google Patents

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/806,701, filed February 15, 2019, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Various embodiments may relate generally to the field of wireless communications.

The system and method include communicating in a wireless network using out-of-order (OOO) HARQ feedback prioritization indications for PDSCH scheduling and OOO scheduling for PUSCH. Some embodiments include implementing OOO communication by a UE.

According to some embodiments, a method for communicating in a wireless network includes receiving, by a user equipment (UE), a first signal and communicating, by the UE, a second signal with one or more radio access networks (RANs) of the wireless network. The first signal includes a prioritization indicator. The UE determines a prioritization state of the second signal based on the prioritization indicator.

According to some embodiments, the UE includes a memory that stores one or more configuration instructions, the one or more configuration instructions including a prioritization indicator. The UE further includes a receiver configured to receive a first signal from a wireless network, the first signal including the one or more configuration instructions, and a transmitter configured to transmit the one or more signals to the wireless network. The UE further includes a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is configured to determine a prioritization state of a second signal based on the prioritization indicator, and communicate the second signal based on the prioritization state via one of the transmitter or the receiver.

According to some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores instructions for execution by one or more processors, the one or more processors being configured, when executed, to receive a first signal including one or more configuration instructions, the configuration instructions including a prioritization indicator, and to communicate a second signal out of order with respect to a timeline associated with one or more other signals based on the prioritization indicator, and the UE is configured to perform simultaneous reception of multiple signals including the second signal and the one or more other signals.

According to some embodiments, signaling may be performed to identify resource mapping for prioritized transmissions by the UE. The signaling may be one or more of higher layer signaling in the form of resource configuration, explicit indication in DL and/or UL grants. In some embodiments, the HARQ codebook includes configuration signals for UEs that can handle parallel DL transmissions. In some embodiments, the higher layer signaling or resource configuration is transmitted via UE-specific or group-common RRC signaling. A scheduling DCI, such as a DL or UL grant based on a UE-specific RNTI or a group-common DCI associated with a common RNTI, may include a prioritization indication. In some embodiments, the UL transmission may be performed based on a type 1 and/or type 2 configuration grant or grant-free. In some embodiments, the UE may receive a dynamic UL grant for UL transmission. The UE may identify which logical channels meet the constraints on resource allocation and prioritization. According to some embodiments, the UE may receive one or more indications in the scheduling DCI and/or higher layer signaling to identify when to prioritize/use grant-based transmission and not transmit using configured grant-free resources. Otherwise, or based on the one or more indications, the UE may identify when to use grant-free resources.

In some embodiments, the DL, UL grant, and/or resource configuration for the UL configuration grant may include one or more bit fields including one or more bits for a prioritization indication of the transmissions made using the indicated/configured resources. In some embodiments, the DL DCI includes a prioritization indication instructing the UE to prioritize both the DL PDSCH and the corresponding HARQ feedback associated with the resource if it overlaps with another transmission. In this case, the UE does not drop the DL PDSCH and/or UL HARQ feedback associated with the grant and/or does not multiplex the UL HARQ feedback with other UL channels. In some embodiments, the UE does not multiplex the HARQ feedback of the important transmission. In some embodiments, the UE is configured to decide whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH in case of overlap based on the prioritization indication in the UL grant for the PUSCH and to maintain (i.e., do not drop) the grant-based PUSCH in case of UL CA and/or DC.

In some embodiments, the prioritization indication may be transmitted in a bit field. In some embodiments, a bit field may be added, and in other embodiments, one or more existing fields (e.g., 0-0 or 0-1) in the DCI format may be used to indicate the prioritization of the DCI-based transmission. In some embodiments, one or more bits of the RV indication field, the time domain resource allocation field, the frequency domain indication field, the MCS field, or other fields may be used. In some embodiments, the prioritization indication may be associated with a power control loop.

1 illustrates a configuration UL transmission that includes grant-based communications that overlap with grant-free resources used by urgency packets, according to some embodiments. 1 illustrates a UE configuration for semi-static HARQ codebook multiplexing to support one and two parallel DL transmissions according to some embodiments. 1 illustrates a system architecture of a network according to some embodiments. 1 illustrates an architecture of a system including a first core network according to some embodiments. 1 illustrates an architecture of a system including a second core network according to some embodiments. 1 illustrates an example of an infrastructure facility in accordance with various embodiments. 1 illustrates exemplary components of a computer platform in accordance with various embodiments. 1 illustrates exemplary components of baseband and radio frequency circuits in accordance with various embodiments. 1 is a diagram of various protocol functions that may be used in various protocol stacks according to various embodiments. 1 illustrates components of a core network according to various embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components of a system that supports NFV, according to some embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some embodiments. 1 illustrates a process flow diagram of a method for configuring prioritization, according to various embodiments. 1 illustrates a process flow diagram of a method for configuring prioritization, according to various embodiments.

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as certain structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that various aspects of the various embodiments may be implemented in other examples that depart from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For purposes of this disclosure, "A or B" means (A), (B), or (A and B).

Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly sophisticated and integrated communications platforms. The next generation wireless communication system, 5G, or New Radio (NR), provides access to information and sharing of data anytime and anywhere by various users and applications. NR is expected to be a unified network/system, aiming to meet significantly different and sometimes competing performance dimensions and services. Such diverse multi-dimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. In general, NR evolves based on 3GPP LTE-Advanced with additional potential new radio access technologies (RATs) to enrich people's lives with better, easier and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR enables everything to be connected wirelessly, delivering high speed and rich content and services.

As NR use case families, industrial Internet of Things (IOT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLCC) have very different requirements in terms of user plane latency and required coverage levels. A key requirement of URLCC is related to the latency and reliability of the user plane (U-plane).
For URLLC, the user plane latency target should be 0.5 ms for UL and 0.5 ms for downlink (DL).
Reliability goal should be ^1x10-5 within 1 ms.

In NR, the UE can receive one or more DL transmissions in parallel, one or more of which may overlap in time and/or frequency. The parallel transmissions may correspond to the same or different service types. One service, such as ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC), may have a higher priority or stricter latency constraints than another service, such as mobile broadband or other non-critical machine type communications. An emergency transmission may require preemption of resources of any ongoing non-emergency transmission. Furthermore, an emergency DL transmission may require HARQ feedback by the UE to be reported before the HARQ feedback timeline of the non-emergency transmission, while the non-emergency transmission may be scheduled before the emergency transmission. This may require the UE to handle parallel DL data reception and/or decoding/processing. In some cases, the UE may be able to multiplex HARQ feedback of both emergency and non-emergency traffic in a common codebook.

Similarly, in the uplink (UL), a UE may have multiple packets or control information ready to transmit. Thus, especially for UEs that may generate traffic of different priorities, contention may be observed in handling collisions regarding which UL transmission to make in one or more of the UL data channels such as PUSCH, grant-based or grant-free, and/or UL control information. In NR, uplink control information (UCI) can be carried by the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Specifically, UCI may include scheduling requests (SRs), hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, channel state information (CSI) reports, such as channel quality indicators (CQIs), precoding matrix indicators (PMIs), CSI resource indicators (CRIs) and rank indicators (RIs), and/or beam-related information (e.g., L1-RSRP (Layer 1-Reference Signal Received Power)). Logical channels may be associated with priorities, but the UE needs to determine where the prioritized packets are transmitted, i.e., which assigned time-frequency resource to select when multiple allocations are available.

As agreed in NR, if PUCCH resources carrying different UCI types overlap in time with at least one symbol within a slot and the UE is provided with concurrent HARQ-ACK-CSI of higher layer parameters, the UE multiplexes dynamic HARQ-ACK and/or SR and/or one or more CSI on resources indicated by the PUCCH resource indication field in the DCI that schedules PDSCH reception according to the payload size of the combined UCI.

This disclosure describes mechanisms for signaling certain indications to facilitate prioritization of one or more of DL and/or UL transmissions.

In addition, another form of prioritization via support for out-of-order (OOO) HARQ feedback for PDSCH scheduling and OOO scheduling for PUSCH is described, and possible constraints for such operation that are feasible from a UE implementation perspective are disclosed.

This disclosure describes a method of signaling to identify resource mapping for prioritized transmissions by a UE. The signaling may be one or more of higher layer signaling in the form of resource configuration, explicit indication in DL and/or UL grants. Additionally, some improvements in HARQ codebook generation are disclosed for UEs capable of handling parallel DL transmissions.

In addition, another form of prioritization via support for out-of-order (OOO) HARQ feedback for PDSCH scheduling and OOO scheduling for PUSCH is described, and possible constraints for such operation that are feasible from a UE implementation perspective are disclosed.

In the following, it is assumed that higher layer signaling, resource configuration, is transmitted via UE-specific or group-common RRC signaling. The L1 indication may include an indication in a scheduling DCI such as a DL or UL grant based on a UE-specific RNTI or a group-common DCI associated to a common RNTI. The terms grant-free transmission and transmission with configuration grant are used interchangeably and refer to the same transmission mode.
Method 1

Method 1 relates to UL transmission. An NR UE may receive a resource configuration for UL transmission based on a Type 1 and/or Type 2 configuration grant, or more generally, a resource configuration for UL transmission without any dynamic grant assigned, i.e., grant-free UL transmission. Furthermore, the UE may also receive a dynamic UL grant for UL transmission. An NR UE may support different service types, and for some service type transmissions, grant-free may be more preferable than grant-based, such as latency-critical transmissions.

From the logical channel priorities, the UE may be able to identify which packets have a higher priority and/or which assigned resources satisfy the constraints associated with the logical channel. For each logical channel, the device may be configured to:
A set of allowed subcarrier spacings that are allowed to use this logical channel;
- the maximum PUSCH duration that can be scheduled for this logical channel, and - the set of serving cells, i.e. the set of uplink component carriers on which this logical channel is allowed to be transmitted.

Only logical channels for which a scheduling grant meets the configured restrictions are allowed to transmit using this grant, i.e., are eligible for multiplexing at this particular point in time.

After identifying which logical channels satisfy the constraints on the assigned resources and priorities of the corresponding logical channels, i.e., packets that are ready to be transmitted in the logical channels, the UE needs to identify how to distribute resources among the different logical channels. For example, the UE may receive a grant to transmit a packet, and then another packet arrives that is more urgent. The next transmission opportunity based on grant-free resources may overlap with the assigned PUSCH resources by the UL grant.

The embodiments described herein include several schemes for how to indicate prioritization for different types of resources, such as time domain resources. An example process for prioritization signaling is described in Figures 13A and 13B.

In some embodiments, the UE may receive one or more indications in the scheduling DCI and/or higher layer signaling, specifying when to prioritize/use grant-based transmission and not transmit using configured grant-free resources, and vice versa. For example, one embodiment of a prioritization indication process 1300 is shown in FIG. 13A. In operation 1302, the UE receives a first signal that may include one or more resource configurations. The first signal may include an indication of a prioritization state of transmission using an active resource configuration (e.g., due to a configuration grant). In operation 1304, the UE determines whether the transmission is prioritized based on the prioritization indication. In operation 1306, the UE communicates a second signal with one or more radio access networks (RANs) of the wireless network based on the prioritization indication. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the UE may drop grant-based UL transmissions from the opportunity for overlap with grant-free resources used by urgent packets. As shown in FIG. 1, T _GB is the duration of the grant-based PUSCH. _TGF is the duration of the grant-free resource in time at each opportunity, and _PGF is the grant-free resource period.

In one embodiment, one or more resource configurations for transmission based on a UL configuration grant, such as Type 1 or Type 2, may include an indication that, if true, means that transmissions using the active resource configuration for the configuration grant are prioritized and transmissions based on dynamic grants are dropped. In FIG. 1, the urgent traffic is transmitted on the next available grant-free resource based on the active grant-free resource configuration. However, having a quasi-static prioritization indication for using grant-free resources may not always be desirable, especially if the network wants to prioritize grant-based traffic from time to time. Thus, L1 signaling, such as an activation DCI for a UL Type 2 transmission of a configuration grant, may include an indication field that may update the prioritization value set by higher layer signaling. Alternatively, a scheduling DCI for a grant-based PUSCH may include a field that, if true, means that in the event of resource overlap, transmissions using grant-based resources are prioritized, i.e., the higher layer configured prioritization of grant-free resources is overwritten.

One non-limiting example sequence of some disclosed aspects is summarized below.
1. A UE receives a first and/or a second grant free resource configuration, where the higher layer signaling of the first and/or second grant free resource configuration includes a field, such as a one bit field, indicating that resource usage based on the first resource configuration takes precedence over overlapping opportunities and/or that resource usage based on the second resource configuration does not take precedence over overlapping opportunities.
2. The UE receives an UL grant for a first packet transmission, where the UL grant indicates that using grant-based transmission is not preferred over overlapping opportunities.
3. A second packet arrives, which may be from a logical channel with a higher priority than the logical channel that contained the first packet, and the next transmission opportunity based on the grant-free first resource configuration overlaps with the resources assigned to the first packet.
4. A second packet of high urgency is transmitted based on the first configuration using grant-free resources based on either a Type 1 or Type 2 configuration grant.
5. The UE drops at least the first packet in the overlapped portion and/or the remaining portion after the overlap.
6. The UE receives an UL grant for a third packet transmission, where the UL grant indicates that the transmission using the grant is prioritized in case of overlap.
7. A fourth packet arrives, which may be from a logical channel that satisfies the resource constraints of either the first or second grant-free configuration, and the next transmission opportunity based on either the first or second grant-free resource configuration overlaps with the resources assigned to the third packet.
8. The prioritization indication in the UL grant has priority over the priority indication for the grant-free resources, so the UE transmits the third packet in the overlapping resources.
9. The UE transmits the fourth packet at the next available opportunity after transmitting the third packet 10. The UE receives an activation DCI for UL transmission based on a second grant-free configuration, the activation DCI including a field indicating that transmission using resources based on the second grant-free configuration is prioritized. The prioritization set by the activation DCI may override the prioritization set by higher layer signaling, or the second configuration may be prioritized in case the next transmission opportunities based on the second and first configurations may overlap.

In another non-limiting example, the prioritization of transmissions using grant-free or grant-based resources in overlapping opportunities may be implicitly derived based on configured and/or indicated transmission parameters such as T _GB , the duration of the grant-based PUSCH, T _GF , the duration of the grant-free resources in time at each opportunity, P _GF , the grant-free resource period, K, and the repetition factor. In one embodiment, if T _GB ≦T _GF and/or P _GF ≦NT _GB , N={1, 2, 3, ...}, the grant-based transmission may not be dropped and the packet based on the grant-free transmission may be transmitted in the next grant-free opportunity.

In some embodiments, instead of the new bit field assumed above, one or more existing fields in DCI format 0-0 or 0-1 may be used to indicate the prioritization of DCI-based transmissions, for example one or more bits of the RV indication field, and/or the time domain resource allocation field and/or the frequency domain indication field and/or the MCS field and/or other fields may be used.
Method 2

In some embodiments, the UE may be capable of processing two or more parallel DL transmissions for unicast traffic, thus requiring HARQ-ACK feedback. As shown in FIG. 2, the UE may be configured for semi-static HARQ codebook multiplexing to support one and two parallel DL transmissions. In FIG. 2, candidate Pos i is assumed to have an earlier start time than candidate Pos j, j>i. Candidate unicast PDSCH transmission positions are provided within a slot based on configured start and length values indicated in a configured table for the UE. If the UE supports only one DL PDSCH process at a time, the semi-static HARQ codebook includes N fields, where N is the maximum number of non-overlapping PDSCH opportunities in a slot (e.g., 3 in FIG. 2). However, if the UE can simultaneously support more than one DL PDSCH process in a slot, more fields in the codebook may be required.

If up to M parallel PDSCHs can be transmitted on each PDSCH opportunity, where N is the maximum number of non-overlapping PDSCH opportunities in a slot, then the semi-static HARQ codebook can have MN fields, where M fields for the first PDSCH opportunity are followed by M fields for the second PDSCH opportunity, etc.

Among the M fields of a given PDSCH opportunity, any order may be specified for mapping the M PDSCH acknowledgments/negatives (A/N) for each opportunity. For example, a frequency-first mapping may be adopted. That is, starting from one edge of the carrier BW portion, the PDSCHs are sorted based on RB index occupancy. For example, the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH in the first PDSCH opportunity occupy RBs 10-20 and 30-50, respectively. The PDSCHs are then mapped based on ascending order of RB index occupancy. That is, A/N1 is assigned to PDSCH1 and the A/N2 field is assigned to PDSCH2. Alternatively, the RB start position may be used, where the PDSCHs are sorted based on ascending or descending order of RB start index and are mapped correspondingly in the M fields. Alternatively, or in addition, the frequency location may be determined based on either or a combination of the starting PRB of the CORESET in which the scheduling DCI is detected, or the starting CCE index of the corresponding PDCCH candidate. For each of these, the UE can be configured by higher layers with a corresponding threshold to determine the corresponding location in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

Furthermore, if DL SPS with PDSCH opportunities with subslot periodicity is introduced, for semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook determination, the corresponding PUCCH opportunities may also be defined at subslot level or slot level. Then, the HARQ-ACK codebook configuration may be adapted to map some HARQ-ACK bits for one or more DL SPS opportunities with the corresponding HARQ-ACK feedback of the current UL slot or PUCCH opportunity after the bits corresponding to the dynamically scheduled bits are set.
Method 3

In some embodiments, the UE may be capable of handling two or more parallel DL transmissions for unicast traffic and therefore require HARQ-ACK feedback. For example, an embodiment of a parallel transmission prioritization indication process 1310 is shown in FIG. 13B. In operation 1312, the UE receives a first signal that may include one or more resource configurations. The first signal may include an indication of a prioritization state of the DL PDSCH and corresponding HARQ feedback. In operation 1314, the UE determines whether the transmission is prioritized based on the prioritization indication. In operation 1316, the UE communicates a second signal with an out-of-order HARQ-ACK based on the determination.

To indicate the priority of DL and/or UL transmissions in a unified manner, the DL and/or UL grants and/or resource configurations for the UL configuration grant may include one or more bit fields containing one or more bits for prioritization indication of the transmissions made using the indicated/configured resources. For example, the prioritization indication in the DL DCI may prioritize both the associated DL PDSCH and the corresponding HARQ feedback in the opportunity for resource overlap with another transmission. That is, the UE does not drop the DL PDSCH and/or UL HARQ feedback associated with the grant and/or does not multiplex the UL HARQ feedback with other UL channels. In some cases, it may be desirable not to multiplex the HARQ feedback of a critical transmission from a reliability point of view. Similarly, the prioritization indication in the UL grant for the PUSCH may mean one or more of the following:
- In case grant-based PUSCH overlaps with UCI in PUCCH, the UCI may or may not be multiplexed with PUSCH.
In case of UL CA and/or DC, grant-based PUSCH is not dropped. Other transmissions may be dropped if there is an overlap in time and/or power limitation issues.

In one embodiment, the prioritization indication can be transmitted in a new bit field. Alternatively, instead of a new bit field, one or more existing fields in DCI format 0-0 or 0-1 can be used to indicate the prioritization of DCI-based transmissions. For example, one or more bits of the RV indication field, and/or the time domain resource allocation field and/or the frequency domain indication field and/or the MCS field and/or other fields can be used.

In one embodiment, the prioritization indication may also be associated with a power control loop. For example, the prioritization indication may not mean to drop other transmissions that overlap with the prioritized transmission, rather, if the indication is received as true, the UE may apply some updates to the power control, such as a preconfigured power boost, or may apply an offset adjustment to the most recent closed loop power control command and/or apply a different preconfigured power control loop.

Furthermore, when the UE is configured in a UL CA or DC scenario, the following prioritization order can be implemented to allow prioritization of higher priority service related transmissions:

を超える場合、但し

は［８－１、ＴＳ３８．１０１－１］及び［８－２、ＴＳ３８．１０１－２］で定義された送信機会ｉにおける

の線形値である場合、ＵＥは、全ＵＥ送信電力が送信機会ｉの全てのシンボルにおける

以下であるように、下記の優先度順に従って（降順で）ＰＵＳＣＨ／ＰＵＣＣＨ／ＰＲＡＣＨ／ＳＲＳ送信に電力を割り当てる。送信機会ｉのシンボルにおける全送信電力を決定する場合、ＵＥは送信機会ｉのシンボルの後から開始する送信の電力を含まない。スロットのシンボルにおける全ＵＥ送信電力は、スロットのシンボルにおけるＰＵＳＣＨ、ＰＵＣＣＨ、ＰＲＡＣＨ、及びＳＲＳに対するＵＥ送信電力の線形値の和として定義される。
・Ｐｃｅｌｌ上のＰＲＡＣＨ送信
・ＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報がスケジューリングＤＣＩフォーマット［１＿０又は］１＿１を介して又はＳＰＳ ＰＤＳＣＨに対する｛上位層構成及び／又はアクティベーションＤＣＩ｝の１つ以上を介して「高優先度」と示されるＰＤＳＣＨに対応する場合、ＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報を用いたＰＵＣＣＨ送信及び／又はＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報を用いたＳＲ又はＰＵＳＣＨ
・ＣＳＩ報告構成が「高優先度」を示す場合、ＣＳＩを用いたＰＵＣＣＨ送信又はＣＳＩを用いたＰＵＳＣＨ送信
・ＰＵＳＣＨがスケジューリングＤＣＩフォーマット［０＿０又は］０＿１を介して又はタイプ１及び２のＣＧ ＰＵＳＣＨに対する｛上位層構成及び／又はアクティベーションＤＣＩ｝のうちの１つ以上を介して「高優先度」と示される場合、ＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報又はＣＳＩを用いないＰＵＳＣＨ送信
・ＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報を用いたＰＵＣＣＨ送信及び／又はＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報を用いたＳＲ又はＰＵＳＣＨ送信
・ＣＳＩを用いたＰＵＣＣＨ送信又はＣＳＩを用いたＰＵＳＣＨ送信
・ＨＡＲＱ－ＡＣＫ情報又はＣＳＩを用いないＰＵＳＣＨ送信
・半永続的及び／又は周期的なＳＲＳよりも高い優先度を有する非周期的ＳＲＳを用いたＳＲＳ送信、又はＰＣｅｌｌ以外のサービングセル上でのＰＲＡＣＨ送信 In the case of single cell operation with two uplink carriers or operation with carrier aggregation, the total UE transmit power for PUSCH or PUCCH or PRACH or SRS transmission at each transmission opportunity i is

However, if it exceeds

is the time for transmission opportunity i defined in [8-1, TS38.101-1] and [8-2, TS38.101-2].

If , , , , the UE can determine that the total UE transmit power is

The UE allocates power to PUSCH/PUCCH/PRACH/SRS transmissions according to the following order of priority (in descending order): When determining the total transmit power in a symbol of transmission opportunity i, the UE does not include the power of transmissions starting after the symbol of transmission opportunity i. The total UE transmit power in a symbol of a slot is defined as the linear sum of the UE transmit powers for PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, and SRS in the symbol of the slot.
PRACH transmission on Pcell PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information and/or SR or PUSCH with HARQ-ACK information if the HARQ-ACK information corresponds to a PDSCH indicated as "high priority" via scheduling DCI format [1_0 or] 1_1 or via one or more of the {higher layer configuration and/or activation DCI} for SPS PDSCH
PUCCH transmission with CSI or PUSCH transmission with CSI if CSI reporting configuration indicates "high priority" PUSCH transmission without HARQ-ACK information or CSI if PUSCH is indicated as "high priority" via scheduling DCI format [0_0 or] 0_1 or via one or more of {higher layer configuration and/or activation DCI} for CG PUSCH of types 1 and 2 PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information and/or SR or PUSCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information PUCCH transmission with CSI or PUSCH transmission with CSI PUSCH transmission without HARQ-ACK information or CSI SRS transmission with aperiodic SRS having higher priority than semi-persistent and/or periodic SRS or PRACH transmission on serving cells other than PCell

In case of equal priority and in case of operation with carrier aggregation, the UE prioritizes power allocation for transmissions on the primary cell of the MCG or SCG over transmissions on secondary cells, and prioritizes power allocation for transmissions on the PCell over transmissions on the PSCell. In case of equal priority and in case of operation with two UL carriers, the UE prioritizes power allocation for transmissions on the carrier on which the UE is configured to transmit PUCCH. If PUCCH is not configured for one of the two UL carriers, the UE prioritizes power allocation for transmissions on the non-complementary UL carrier.

In the above, the indication of "high priority" can be achieved according to the method employing higher layer signaling (UE specific RRC signaling) and/or dynamic scheduling DCI as disclosed above.
Out-of-order PDSCH HARQ-ACK and PUSCH scheduling

In addition to the intra-UE multiplexing and prioritization methods described above, another form of prioritization between different PDSCHs or PUSCHs can be achieved through support of out-of-order (OOO) HARQ feedback for PDSCH scheduling and OOO scheduling for PUSCH.

OOO HARQ for PDSCH corresponds to the case where a HARQ process PDSCH_A is followed by another HARQ process PDSCH_B, but the corresponding HARQ-ACK is fed back such that HARQ-ACK_B is followed by HARQ-ACK_A. In this case, PDSCH_B has priority over PDSCH_A for the same UE in terms of UE processing turnaround time.

Similarly, in case of OOO PUSCH scheduling, a second PDCCH_B received after a first PDCCH_A may schedule a PUSCH_B, which is scheduled to be transmitted with its last symbol ending before the first symbol of PUSCH_A is transmitted. In this case, PUSCH_B has priority over PUSCH_A for the same UE.

Such operations affect the pipelined operations in the UE for either processing of PDCCH and PDSCH for DL OOO HARQ for PDSCH and preparation of Ack/NACK feedback for PUCCH or PUSCH, and affect the pipelined processing of preparation of PDCCH to PUSCH for OOO scheduling for UL.

To mitigate the impact on the UE, in one embodiment, a UE capable of out-of-order HARQ-ACK operation for DL, when configured via higher layer signaling (UE-specific RRC signaling) to expect OOO PDSCH HARQ, can expect OOO operation such that at any given time up to two HARQ processes may be out-of-order with respect to each other.

Similarly, for the UL, in another embodiment, a UE capable of out-of-order PUSCH scheduling, when configured via higher layer signaling (UE-specific RRC signaling) to expect OOO PUSCH scheduling, can expect OOO scheduling such that at any given time up to two HARQ processes may be out-of-order with respect to each other.

That is, in the example of DL OOO HARQ operation, for a given HARQ-ACK_A in response to a scheduled PDSCH_A, the UE can expect at most one PDSCH with earlier HARQ-ACK feedback timing compared to the HARQ-ACK_A for the previously received PDSCH_A.

Similarly, in the example of UL OOO scheduling, for a given PUSCH_A scheduled by PDCCH_A, the UE can expect at most one PUSCH that may be scheduled by a PDCCH received after PDCCH_A, such that the PUSCH is transmitted before the start of PUSCH_A.
System and Implementation

Figure 3 illustrates an example architecture of a system 300 of a network according to various embodiments. The following description describes an example system 300 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that would benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.).

As shown in FIG. 3, system 300 includes UE 301a and UE 301b (collectively referred to as "UE 301"). In this example, UE 301 is illustrated as a smartphone (e.g., a portable touchscreen mobile computing device capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer device, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handset, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an infusion infotainment (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument cluster (IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an on-board diagnostics (OBD) device, a dash-top mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an electronic engine management system (EEMS), an electronic/engine control unit (ECU), an electronic engine/engine control module (ECM), an embedded system, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system (EMS), a networked or "smart" appliance, an MTC device, an M2M, an IoT device, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 301 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M data exchange or MTC data exchange may be machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes IoT UEs connecting to each other, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may run background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate IoT network connectivity.

UE 301 may be configured to be connected, e.g., communicatively coupled, to RAN 310. In an embodiment, RAN 310 may be an NG RAN or a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN such as a UTRAN or a GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to a RAN 310 operating in an NR or 5G system 300, and the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to a RAN 310 operating in an LTE or 4G system 300. UE 301 utilizes connection (or channel) 303 and connection 304, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in more detail below).

In this example, connections 303 and 304 are shown as air interfaces to enable a communicative coupling and may correspond to a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the other communication protocols discussed herein. In this embodiment, UE 301 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 305. ProSe interface 305 may alternatively be referred to as an SL interface 305 and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

UE 301b is shown configured to access AP 306 (also referred to as "WLAN node 306", "WLAN 306", "WLAN terminal 306", "WT 306", etc.) via connection 307. Connection 307 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, and AP 306 may comprise a Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) (registered trademark) router. In this example, AP 306 is connected to the Internet without connecting to a core network of a wireless system as shown (described in more detail below). In various embodiments, UE 301b, RAN 310 and AP 306 may be configured to utilize LWA and/or LWIP operations. LWA operations may involve the UE 301b being RRC_CONNECTED and configured by the RAN nodes 311a-311b to utilize LTE and WLAN radio resources. LWIP operations may involve the UE 301b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 307) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection 307. IPsec tunneling may involve encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

RAN 310 may include one or more AN or RAN nodes 311a and 311b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 311") that enable connections 303 and 304. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides wireless baseband functionality for data and/or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BSs, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs, TRPs, etc., and may comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term "NG RAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 311 operating in an NR or 5G system 300 (e.g., a gNB), and the term "E-UTRAN node" may refer to a RAN node 311 operating in an LTE or 4G system 300 (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN node 311 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices, such as a macrocell base station and/or a low power (LP) base station, to provide a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 311 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functionality splitting such as PDCP splitting, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 311, MAC/PHY splitting, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by an individual RAN node 311, or a "lower PHY" splitting, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layer, and the upper part of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by an individual RAN node 311. This virtualized framework allows freed processor cores of the RAN node 311 to run other virtualized applications. In some implementations, each RAN node 311 may represent an individual gNB-DU connected to a gNB-CU via an individual F1 interface (not shown in FIG. 3). In these implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., FIG. 6), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server located in the RAN 310 (not shown) or by a server pool in a manner similar to the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 311 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals towards the UE 301 and is connected to a 5GC (e.g., CN 520 in FIG. 5) via an NG interface.

In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 311 may be or play the role of an RSU. The term "Road Side Unit" or "RSU" may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, and an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB type RSU", etc. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to radio frequency circuitry located on the roadside that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 301 (vUE 301). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for detecting and controlling ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate in the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communications necessary for high speed events such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate in the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications, as well as other cellular communication services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Some or all of the RSU's computing device and radio frequency circuitry may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and/or a backhaul network.

Any of the RAN nodes 311 may terminate the air interface protocols and may be the first point of contact for the UE 301. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 311 may perform various logical functions for the RAN 310, including, but not limited to, radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and radio network controller (RNC) functions such as data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

According to some embodiments, the UEs 301 may be configured to communicate with either one another or the RAN nodes 311 using OFDM communication signals over multi-carrier communication channels according to various communication technologies, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication technologies (e.g., for downlink communications) or SC-FDMA communication technologies (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), and the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 311 to the UE 301, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resources of the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common convention for OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit of the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid contains a number of resource blocks, which describes the mapping of a particular physical channel to the resource elements. Each resource block contains a set of resource elements, which in the frequency domain can represent the smallest amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, UE 301 and RAN node 311 communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data over licensed media (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and/or "licensed bands") and unlicensed shared media (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and/or "unlicensed bands"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range from about 400 MHz to about 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 301 and the RAN node 311 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 301 and the RAN node 311 may perform one or more known medium sensing and/or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism by which a device (e.g., UE 301, RAN node 311, etc.) senses the medium (e.g., channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine the presence or absence of other signals on the channel to determine if the channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in unlicensed spectrum and other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over the intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

Typically, the current system in the 5 GHz band is a WLAN based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 301, AP 306, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. Furthermore, a back-off mechanism is used to avoid collisions in the situation where two or more WLAN nodes sense the channel as idle and transmit simultaneously. The back-off mechanism may be a randomly drawn counter in the CWS, which is exponentially increased upon the occurrence of a collision and reset to a minimum value upon successful transmission. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA/CA in WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for a DL or UL transmission burst containing a PDSCH or PUSCH transmission, respectively, may have an LAA contention window with a variable length between the XECCA and YECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values of the CWS for the LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs), although the size of the CWS and MCOT (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to 5 CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL, and the number of UL CCs is less than or equal to the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are usually the same for DL and UL.

CA also includes individual serving cells serving individual CCs. For example, CCs in different frequency bands experience different path losses, so the effective communication coverage of the serving cells may be different. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL and may handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide a separate SCC for both UL and DL. While changing the PCC may require the UE 301 to undergo a handover, SCCs may be added and removed as needed. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (called "LAA SCell"), and the LAA SCell is supported by a PCell operating in a licensed spectrum. If the UE is configured with two or more LAA SCells, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions within the same subframe.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UEs 301. The PDCCH carries, among other things, information regarding the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UEs 301 about the transmission format, resource allocation, and HARQ information for the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to the UEs 301b in the cell) may be performed in any of the RAN nodes 311 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 301. The downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted in the PDCCH used (e.g., assigned) for each of the UEs 301.

The PDCCH conveys control information using CCEs. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets and then shuffled using a subblock interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, and each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined for LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use a concept for resource allocation for control channel information that is an extension of the concept above. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. As above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as EREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some circumstances.

The RAN nodes 311 may be configured to communicate with each other via the interface 312. In an embodiment where the system 300 is an LTE system (e.g., where the CN 320 is the EPC 420 of FIG. 4), the interface 312 may be an X2 interface 312. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 311 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) that connect to the EPC 320 and/or between two eNBs that connect to the EPC 320. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets forwarded over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information regarding the distribution of user data between the eNBs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from MeNB to SeNB, information on successful sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from SeNB to UE301 for user data, information on PDCP PDUs not delivered to UE301, information on the current minimum desired buffer size at SeNB for transmitting UE user data, etc. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, load management functions, and inter-cell interference coordination functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transport control, etc.

In an embodiment where the system 300 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., where the CN 320 is the 5GC 520 of FIG. 5), the interface 312 may be an Xn interface 312. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 311 (e.g., two or more gNBs) that connect to the 5GC 320, between a RAN node 311 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB that connect to the 5GC 320, and/or between two eNBs that connect to the 5GC 320. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functions. Xn-C provides mobility support for connected mode UEs 301 (e.g., CM-CONNECTED), including, among other functions, management and error handling functions, functions to manage the Xn-C interface, functions to manage UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 311. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 311 to the new (target) serving RAN node 311, and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node 311 and the new (target) serving RAN node 311. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a UDP layer and/or a GTP-U layer on top of the IP layer to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (called Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)), and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may sit above the IP layer and provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. At the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U and/or Xn-C protocol stacks may be the same as or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

RAN 310 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment Core Network (CN) 320. CN 320 may comprise a number of network elements 322 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of UE 301) connected to CN 320 via RAN 310. The components of CN 320 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the network node functions described above via executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (described in more detail below). A logical instantiation of CN 320 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of CN 320 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions on physical resources including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches, or may be performed by dedicated hardware. In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components/functions.

In general, the application server 330 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 330 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 301 via the EPC 320.

In an embodiment, the CN 320 may be a 5GC (e.g., referred to as "5GC 320"), and the RAN 310 may be connected to the CN 320 via an NG interface 313. In an embodiment, the NG interface 313 may be divided into two parts: an NG User Plane (NG-U) interface 314, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 311 and the UPF, and an S1 Control Plane (NG-C) interface 315, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 311 and the AMF. An embodiment in which the CN 320 is a 5GC 320 is described in more detail with respect to FIG. 5.

In an embodiment, CN 320 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC320" or the like), and in other embodiments, CN 320 may be an EPC. When CN 320 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC320" or the like), RAN 310 may be connected to CN 320 via S1 interface 313. In an embodiment, S1 interface 313 may be split into two parts: S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 314, which carries traffic data between RAN node 311 and the S-GW, and S1-MME interface 315, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 311 and the MME. An exemplary architecture in which CN 320 is an EPC 320 is shown in FIG. 4.

Figure 4 illustrates an example architecture of a system 400 including a first CN 420, according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 400 may implement the LTE standard, where the CN 420 is an EPC 420 corresponding to the CN 320 of Figure 3. Furthermore, the UE 401 may be the same as or similar to the UE 301 of Figure 3, and the E-UTRAN 410 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 310 of Figure 3 and may include the RAN node 311 described above. The CN 420 may include an MME 421, an S-GW 422, a P-GW 423, an HSS 424, and an SGSN 425.

The MME 421 may be similar in function to the control plane of a legacy SGSN and may implement MM functions to track the current location of the UE 401. The MME 421 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects of access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in E-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. used to maintain knowledge of the current location of the UE 401, provide user identity confidentiality, and/or perform other similar services to the user/subscriber. Each UE 401 and MME 421 may include an MM or EMM sub-layer, and an MM context may be established in the UE 401 and MME 421 upon successful completion of the attach procedure. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information for the UE 401. MME 421 may be coupled to HSS 424 via an S6a reference point, may be coupled to SGSN 425 via an S3 reference point, and may be coupled to S-GW 422 via an S11 reference point.

SGSN 425 may be the node serving UE 401 by tracking the location of individual UE 401 and performing security functions. Furthermore, SGSN 425 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G/3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks, PDN and S-GW selection specified by MME 421, handling time zone functionality of UE 401 specified by MME 421, MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network, among other functions. S3 reference point between MME 421 and SGSN 425 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle and/or active states.

HSS424 may comprise a database of network users, including subscription-related information to support handling of communication sessions by network entities. EPC420 may comprise one or more HSS424 depending on the number of mobile subscribers, equipment capacity, network organization, etc. For example, HSS424 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between HSS424 and MME421 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to EPC420 between HSS424 and MME421.

The S-GW 422 may terminate the S1 interface 313 ("S1-U" in FIG. 4) to the RAN 410 and route data packets between the RAN 410 and the EPC 420. In addition, the S-GW 422 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement. An S11 reference point between the S-GW 422 and the MME 421 may provide a control plane between the MME 421 and the S-GW 422. The S-GW 422 may be coupled to the P-GW 423 via an S5 reference point.

The P-GW 423 may terminate an SGi interface to the PDN 430. The P-GW 423 may route data packets between the EPC 420 and an external network, such as a network including an application server 330 (alternatively referred to as an "AF"), via an IP interface 325 (see, e.g., FIG. 3). In an embodiment, the P-GW 423 may be communicatively coupled to an application server (application server 330 in FIG. 3 or PDN 430 in FIG. 4) via an IP communication interface 325 (see, e.g., FIG. 3). An S5 reference point between the P-GW 423 and the S-GW 422 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the GW 423 and the S-GW 422. The S5 reference point may also be used for relocation of the S-GW 422 when, due to the mobility of the UE 401, the S-GW 422 needs to connect to a non-co-located P-GW 423 for required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 423 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 423 and the packet data network (PDN) 430 may be an operator external public, private PDN, or intra-operator packet data network, for example, for providing IMS services. The P-GW 423 may be coupled to the PCRF 426 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 426 is the policy and charging control element of EPC 420. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 426 in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with the Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 401. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 401, namely, a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF 426 may be communicatively coupled to application server 430 via P-GW 423. The application server 430 may signal the PCRF 426 to indicate the new service flow and select the QoS and charging parameters. The PCRF 426 may provision this rule to the PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, and initiate the QoS and charging specified by the application server 430. A Gx reference point between the PCRF 426 and the P-GW 423 may allow the transfer of QoS policies and charging rules from the PCRF 426 to the PCEF of the P-GW 423. An Rx reference point may exist between the PDN 430 (or "AF 430") and the PCRF 426.

5 illustrates an architecture of a system 500 including a second CN 520 according to various embodiments. The system 500 is shown to include a UE 501, which may be the same as or similar to the UE 301 and UE 401 described above, an (R)AN 510, which may be the same as or similar to the RAN 310 and RAN 410 described above and may include the RAN node 311 described above, a DN 503, which may be, for example, an operator service, Internet access, or a third party service, and a 5GC 520. The 5GC 520 may include an AUSF 522, an AMF 521, an SMF 524, an NEF 523, a PCF 526, an NRF 525, a UDM 527, an AF 528, a UPF 502, and an NSSF 529.

The UPF 502 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to the DN 503, and a branch point supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 502 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), perform transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 502 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to the data network. The DN 503 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services. The DN 503 may include or be similar to the application server 330 discussed above. The UPF 502 can interact with the SMF 524 via the N4 reference point between the SMF 524 and the UPF 502.

The AUSF522 may store data for authentication of the UE501 and process authentication related functions. The AUSF522 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF522 may communicate with the AMF521 via the N12 reference point between the AMF521 and the AUSF522, and with the UDM527 via the N13 reference point between the UDM527 and the AUSF522. In addition, the AUSF522 may exhibit a Nausf service based interface.

AMF521 may be involved in registration management (e.g., to register UE501), connectivity management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. AMF521 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF521 and SMF524. AMF521 may provide transport of SM messages between UE501 and SMF524 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF521 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE501 and SMSF (not shown in FIG. 5). AMF521 may act as a SEAF, which may include interaction with AUSF522 and UE501 and receiving intermediate keys established as a result of the authentication process of UE501. If USIM-based authentication is used, the AMF 521 may obtain security material from the AUSF 522. The AMF 521 may also include an SCM function that receives keys from the SEA for use in deriving access network specific keys. Furthermore, the AMF 521 may be the termination point of the RANCP interface and may include or be the N2 reference point between the (R)AN 510 and the AMF 521, and the AMF 521 is the termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and may perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection.

AMF521 may also support NAS signaling with UE501 via the N3 IWF interface. The N3 IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3 IWF may be the termination point of the N2 interface between (R)AN510 and AMF521 in the control plane, and may be the termination point of the N3 reference point between (R)AN510 and UPF502 in the user plane. Thus, AMF521 may process N2 signaling from SMF524 and AMF521 for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate/decapsulate packets for IPsec and N3 tunneling, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. The N3IWF can also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 501 and the AMF 521 via the N1 reference point between the UE 501 and the AMF 521, and can relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 501 and the UPF 502. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE 501. The AMF 521 can exhibit a Namf service-based interface and can be the termination point of the N14 reference point between two AMFs 521, and the N17 reference point between the AMF 521 and the 5G-EIR (not shown in FIG. 5).

UE 501 may need to register with AMF 521 to receive network services. RM is used to register or deregister UE 501 with the network (e.g., AMF 521) and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 521). UE 501 may operate in RM-REGISTERED or RM-DEREGISTERED states. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, UE 501 is not registered with the network and the UE context in AMF 521 does not hold valid location or routing information for UE 501 such that UE 501 is not reachable by AMF 521. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 501 is registered in the network and the UE context in AMF 521 may hold valid location or routing information for UE 501 so that UE 501 is reachable by AMF 521. In the RM-REGISTERED state, among other things, UE 501 may perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiry of a periodic update timer (e.g., to inform the network that UE 501 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network.

AMF521 may store one or more RM contexts for UE501, each RM context associated with a particular access to the network. The RM context may be a data structure, database object, etc. indicating or storing, among other things, the registration state and periodic update timers per access type. AMF521 may also store a 5G CMM context, which may be the same as or similar to the (E)MM context described above. In various embodiments, AMF521 may store CE Mode B restriction parameters for UE501 in the associated MM context or RM context. AMF521 may also derive values, as necessary, from the UE's usage configuration parameters already stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RM context).

CM may be used to establish and release signaling connections between UE 501 and AMF 521 over the N1 interface. The signaling connections are used to enable NAS signaling exchange between UE 501 and CN 520 and include both the signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and the N2 connection for UE 501 between the AN (e.g., RAN 510) and AMF 521. UE 501 may operate in either of two CM states: CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When UE 501 is operating in CM-IDLE state/mode, UE 501 may not have an established NAS signaling connection with AMF 521 over the N1 interface, and there may be an (R)AN 510 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connection) for UE 501. When UE 501 is operating in CM-CONNECTED state/mode, UE 501 may have an established NAS signaling connection with AMF 521 over the N1 interface, and there may be an (R)AN 510 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connection) for UE 501. Establishment of an N2 connection between (R)AN 510 and AMF 521 can transition UE 501 from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and UE 501 can transition from CM-CONNECTED mode to CM-IDLE mode when N2 signaling between (R)AN 510 and AMF 521 is released.

The SMF 524 may include SM (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between the UPF and AN nodes), UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization), selection and control of UP functions, configuring traffic steering in the UPF to route traffic to the appropriate destination, terminating the interface towards the policy control function, policy enforcement and part of the control of QoS, lawful interception (of SM events and interfaces towards the LI system), terminating the SM part of NAS messages, downlink data notification, initiating AN-specific SM information sent to the AN via the AMF on N2, and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of PDU sessions, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that performs or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 501 and a data network (DN) 503 identified by a data network name (DNN). The PDU session may be established at UE501 request, modified at UE501 and 5GC520 request, and released at UE501 and 5GC520 request using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between UE501 and SMF524. At the request from the application server, 5GC520 may trigger a specific application in UE501. At the receipt of the trigger message, UE501 may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts/information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE501. The identified application(s) in UE501 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF524 may check whether the UE501 request complies with the user subscription information associated with UE501. In this regard, the SMF 524 may request to obtain and/or receive update notifications for SMF 524-level subscription data from the UDM 527.

The SMF 524 may include the following roaming functions: local enforcement processing for applying QoS SLA (VPLMN), charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN), lawful interception (in the VPLMN of SM events and interfaces to the LI system), and support for interaction with external DNs for transmission of signaling for authorization/authentication of PDU sessions by the external DN. An N16 reference point between two SMFs 524 may be included in the system 500, which may be between another SMF 524 in a visited network and an SMF 524 in a home network in a roaming scenario. In addition, the SMF 524 may exhibit an Nsmf service-based interface.

The NEF 523 may provide a means for securely exposing services and capabilities offered by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal publishing/republishing, application functions (e.g., AF 528), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such an embodiment, the NEF 523 may authenticate, authorize, and/or moderate AFs. The NEF 523 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 528 and with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 523 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 523 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the exposed capabilities of the other network functions. This information may be stored in the NEF 523 as structured data or in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be republished by the NEF 523 to other NFs and AFs and/or used for other purposes, such as analytics. Additionally, NEF 523 can present an Nnef service-based interface.

NRF 525 supports service discovery functionality and can receive NF discovery requests from NF instances and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 525 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms "instance," "instantiation," etc. can refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" can refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, NRF 525 can represent Nnrf service-based interfaces.

The PCF 526 may provide policy rules to the control plane function(s) to enforce them and may support a unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 526 may also implement a FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 527. The PCF 526 may communicate with the AMF 521 via an N15 reference point between the PCF 526 and the AMF 521, and in the case of a roaming scenario, may include the PCF 526 and the AMF 521 in the visited network. The PCF 526 may communicate with the AF 528 via an N5 reference point between the PCF 526 and the AF 528, and may communicate with the SMF 524 via an N7 reference point between the PCF 526 and the SMF 524. The system 500 and/or the CN 520 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 526 (in the home network) and the PCF 526 in the visited network. Additionally, PCF 526 can present an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 527 can process subscription-related information to support the processing of communication sessions of network entities and can store subscription data of the UE 501. For example, the subscription data can be communicated between the UDM 527 and the AMF 521 via the N8 reference point between the UDM 527 and the AMF 521. The UDM 527 can include two parts: an application FE and a UDR (FE and UDR are not shown in FIG. 5). The UDR can store structured data for the subscription data and policy data of the UDM 527 and the PCF 526, and/or the exposure and application data of the NEF 523 (including PFD for application discovery, application requirement information for multiple UEs 501). A Nudr service-based interface may be presented by the UDR and 221 to allow the UDM 527, PCF 526, and NEF 523 to access a particular set of stored data, read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM FE responsible for handling credential, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front-ends may provide services to the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authorization credential processing, user identification processing, access permission, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR may interact with the SMF 524 via the N10 reference point between the UDM 527 and the SMF 524. The UDM 527 may also support SMS management, with the SMS-FE implementing application logic similar to that described above. In addition, the UDM 527 may present a Nudm service-based interface.

AF528 can influence traffic routing for applications, provide access to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE may be a mechanism that allows the 5GC520 and the AF528 to provide information to each other via the NEF523, which can be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, network operators and third party services can be hosted in close proximity to the access point of attachment of the UE501 to achieve efficient service delivery with reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. In edge computing implementations, the 5GC can select a UPF502 in close proximity to the UE501 and perform traffic steering from the UPF502 to the DN503 via the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF528. In this way, the AF528 can influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator's deployment, when the AF 528 is deemed to be a trusted entity, the network operator may allow the AF 528 to directly interact with the associated NFs. Furthermore, the AF 528 may present a Naf service-based interface.

NSSF529 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE501. NSSF529 may also determine the mapping to authorized NSSAIs and subscribed S-NSSAIs, if necessary. NSSF529 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve UE501, or a list of candidate AMF(s) 521, based on a preferred configuration, possibly by querying NRF525. The selection of the set of network slice instances for UE501 may be triggered by AMF521, to which UE501 is registered by interacting with NSSF529, which may lead to the change. NSSF529 may interact with AMF521 via the N22 reference point between AMF521 and NSSF529. It may communicate with another NSSF529 in the visited network via the N31 reference point (not shown in FIG. 5). Additionally, NSSF 529 can present an Nnssf service-based interface.

As mentioned before, CN 520 may include an SMSF, which is involved in SMS subscription checks and validation and can relay SM messages between UE 501 and other entities such as SMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS router. SMS can also interact with AMF 521 and UDM 527 for notification procedures that UE 501 is available for SMS forwarding (e.g., setting UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 527 when UE 501 is available for SMS).

CN120 may also include other elements not shown in FIG. 5, such as a data storage system/architecture, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system may include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured data in and from a UDSF (e.g., UE context) via the N18 reference point (not shown in FIG. 5) between any NF and the UDSF. Individual NFs may share a UDSF to store their respective unstructured data, or each individual NF may have its own UDSF located at or near the individual NF. Additionally, the UDSF may present a Nudsf service-based interface (not shown in FIG. 5). The 5G-EIR may be the NF that checks the status of the PEI to determine if a particular device/entity is blacklisted from the network, and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

Furthermore, there may be more reference points and/or service-based interfaces between NF services within an NF. However, these interfaces and reference points are omitted from FIG. 5 for clarity. In one example, CN 520 may include an Nx interface, which is a CN-to-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 421) and an AMF 521 to enable interworking between CN 520 and CN 420. Other example interfaces/reference points may include the N5g-EIR service-based interface presented by 5G-EIR, the N27 reference point between the NRF in the visited network and the NRF in the home network, and the N31 reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF in the home network.

Figure 6 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 600 according to various embodiments. Infrastructure equipment 600 (or "system 600") may be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node such as RAN node 311 and/or AP 306 as previously described, an application server 330, and/or any other element/device described herein. In other examples, system 600 may be implemented in or by a UE.

The system 600 includes an application circuit 605, a baseband circuit 610, one or more radio front-end modules (RFEMs) 615, a memory circuit 620, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 625, a power T circuit 630, a network controller circuit 635, a network interface connector 640, a satellite positioning circuit 645, and a user interface 650. In some embodiments, the device 600 may include additional elements, such as, for example, memory/storage, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in two or more devices. For example, the circuits may be included separately in two or more devices for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementations.

The application circuitry 605 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of the following: a low dropout voltage regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, ^I2C , or a universal programmable serial interface module, a real time clock (RTC), timer counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO), a memory card controller such as a Secure Digital (SD) Multimedia Card (MMC), a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interface, and a Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access port. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry 605 may be coupled to or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 600. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology as described herein.

The processor of the application circuit 605 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphic processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 605 may include or be a special purpose processor/controller operating in accordance with various embodiments of the present specification. By way of example, the processor of application circuit 605 may include one or more of an Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processor, an Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor, an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), or an Epyc® processor, ARM-based processors offered by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A family of processors, and MIPS-based designs offered by MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the ThunderX2®, MIPS Warrior, or P-class processors offered by Cavium™ Inc., and the like. In some embodiments, the system 600 may not utilize application circuitry 605 and may instead include a dedicated processor/controller for processing IP data received from, for example, the EPC or 5GC.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 605 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be a microprocessor, a programmable processing device, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, a computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerator. By way of example, the programmable processing device may include one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as composite PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), ASICs, such as structured ASICs, programmable SoCs (PSoCs), or other circuits. In such implementations, the circuitry of the application circuitry 605 may include logic blocks or logic fabrics and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, and the like, of the various implementations described herein. In such an embodiment, the circuitry of the application circuit 605 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc., in look-up tables (LUTs), etc.

The baseband circuitry 610 may be implemented, for example, as a soldered board containing one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of the baseband circuitry 610 are described below with respect to FIG. 8.

User interface circuitry 650 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with system 600, or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with system 600. User interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio light emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, and the like. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, and the like.

The radio front-end module (RFEM) 615 may include a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) RFEM and one or more sub-mm-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mm-wave RFICs may be physically separate from the mm-wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, antenna array 811 in FIG. 8 below), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mm-wave and sub-mm-wave radio functions may be implemented within the same physical RFEM 615 that incorporates both mm-wave and sub-mm-wave antennas.

Memory circuitry 620 may include one or more of volatile memory, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), and the like, and may incorporate Intel® and Micron® three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories. Memory circuitry 620 may be implemented as one or more of a solder packaged integrated circuit, a socketed memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

The PMIC 625 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or a capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of brownout (undervoltage) and surge (overvoltage) conditions. The power T circuit 630 may provide power drawn from the network cable to provide both power and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment 600 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 635 may provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol, such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment 600 via network interface connectors 640 using physical connections that may be electrical (commonly referred to as "copper wiring"), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuitry 635 may include one or more dedicated processors and/or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuitry 635 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuit 645 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted/broadcast by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States Global Positioning System (GPS), the Russian Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, the Chinese Beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., Navigation by Indian Constellation (NAVIC), the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), the French Doppler Orbitography and Radio positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), etc.). The positioning circuitry 645 comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc., to facilitate OTA communications) for communicating with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 645 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC for performing position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance using a master timing clock. The positioning circuitry 645 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuitry 610 and/or the RFEM 615 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 645 may also provide position and/or time data to the application circuitry 605, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., RAN nodes 311, etc.), etc.

6 may communicate with one another using interface circuitry that may include any number of bus and/or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Enhanced ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Enhanced Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCIx), PCI Express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be, for example, a proprietary bus used in a SoC-based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an ^I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, among others.

7 illustrates an example of a platform 700 (or "device 700") according to various embodiments. In an embodiment, the platform 700 may be suitable for use as a UE 301, 401, 501, an application server 330, and/or any other element/device described herein. The platform 700 may include any combination of components shown in the examples. The components of the platform 700 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs) adapted to the computer platform 700, as part thereof, as separate electronic devices, or as other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof, or as components integrated into the chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of FIG. 7 is intended to illustrate a high-level view of the components of the computer platform 700. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

The application circuitry 705 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, ^I2C , or universal programmable serial interface modules, timer counters including RTCs, interval and watchdog timers, general purpose I/O, memory card controllers such as SDMMC, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry 705 may be coupled to or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 700. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology as described herein.

The processor of the application circuit 605 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 605 may include or be a special-purpose processor/controller operating in accordance with various embodiments of the present specification.

By way of example, the processor of the application circuit 705 may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, Atom™, i3, i5, i7, or MCU class processor, or another such processor available from Intel® Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. The processor of the application circuit 705 may also include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen™ processors or Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), A5-A9 processors from Apple® Inc., Snapdragon™ processors from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., NVIDIA ... The application circuit 705 may be one or more of the following: an Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™ processor, a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors, an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M families of processors, or the like. In some implementations, the application circuit 705 may be part of a system-on-chip (SoC) in which the application circuit 705 and other components are formed on a single integrated circuit or package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards manufactured by Intel® Corporation.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 705 may include one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as FPGAs, programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as composite PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), ASICs, such as structured ASICs, programmable SoCs (PSoCs), and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 705 may include logic blocks or fabrics and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, and functions of the various embodiments described herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 705 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, and the like) used to store logic blocks, logic fabrics, data, and the like, such as in look-up tables (LUTs).

The baseband circuitry 710 may be implemented, for example, as a soldered board containing one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of the baseband circuitry 710 are described below with respect to FIG. 8.

The RFEM 715 may include a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) RFEM and one or more sub-mm-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mm-wave RFICs may be physically separate from the mm-wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, antenna array 811 in FIG. 8 below), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mm-wave and sub-mm-wave radio functions may be implemented within the same physical RFEM 715 incorporating both mm-wave antennas and sub-mm-wave.

The memory circuit 720 may include any number and type of memory devices used to provide a given amount of system memory. By way of example, the memory circuit 720 may include one or more of volatile memory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and non-volatile memory (NVM) including high speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), and the like. The memory circuit 720 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR) based designs, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, and the like. The memory circuit 720 may be implemented as one or more of a solder packaged integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP) or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and/or soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In a low power implementation, the memory circuit 720 may be an on-die memory or register associated with the application circuit 705. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 720 may include one or more mass storage devices that may include a solid state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory, among others. For example, the computer platform 700 may incorporate a three-dimensional (3D) cross point (XPOINT) memory from Intel® and Micron®.

Removable memory circuitry 723 may include devices, circuits, enclosures, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portable data storage devices to platform 700. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD image cards, etc.), USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

The platform 700 may also include an interface circuit (not shown) used to connect external devices with the platform 700. External devices connected to the platform 700 via the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 721 and electromechanical components (EMC) 722, as well as a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 723.

Sensor circuitry 721 includes devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and transmit information about the detected events (sensor data) to other devices, modules, subsystems, etc. Examples of such sensors include inertial measurement units (IMUs) including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers, among others; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) with 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors, flow sensors, temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors), pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors, gravimeters, altimeters, image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures), light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, proximity sensors (e.g., infrared detectors, etc.), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers, microphones or other similar audio capture devices, etc.

EMC722 includes devices, modules, or subsystems intended to enable platform700 to change its state, position, and/or orientation, or to move or control mechanisms or (sub)systems. Furthermore, EMC722 may be configured to generate and send messages/signals to other components of platform700 to indicate the current state of EMC722. Examples of EMC722 include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid-state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, platform700 is configured to operate one or more EMC722 based on one or more captured events and/or commands or control signals received from service providers and/or various clients.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform 700 with the positioning circuitry 745. The positioning circuitry 745 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted/broadcast by a GNSS positioning network. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.), and the like. The positioning circuitry 745 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. to facilitate OTA communications) for communicating with components of the positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 745 may include a Micro-PNT IC for performing position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance using a master timing clock. The positioning circuitry 745 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuitry 610 and/or the RFEM 715 to communicate with nodes and components of a positioning network. The positioning circuitry 745 may also provide position and/or time data to the application circuitry 705, which may use the data to synchronize operation with various infrastructures (e.g., wireless base stations), such as for turn-by-turn navigation applications.

In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 700 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 740. The NFC circuit 740 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, and magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 740 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 700. The NFC circuit 740 comprises an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC that provides the NFC circuit 740 with NFC functionality by executing the NFC controller firmware and the NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to radiate a near-field RF signal. The RF signal can power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFC circuit 740, or initiate data transmission between the NFC circuit 740 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or NFC-enabled POS terminal) in proximity to the platform 700.

The driver circuitry 746 may include software and hardware elements that operate to control specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 700. The driver circuitry 746 may include individual drivers that enable other components of the platform 700 to interact with or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 700. For example, the driver circuitry 746 may include a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touchscreen interface of the platform 700, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuitry 721 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuitry 721, an EMC driver for obtaining actuator positions of the EMC 722 and/or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 722, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 725 (also referred to as "power management circuit 725") can manage the power supplied to various components of the platform 700. Specifically, with respect to the baseband circuit 710, the PMIC 725 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. A PMIC 725 may often be included when the platform 700 can be powered by a battery 730, for example when this device is included in a UE 301, 401, 501.

In some embodiments, the PM IC 725 may control or otherwise be a part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 700. For example, if the platform 700 is in the RRC_Connected state and is still connected to a RAN node because it expects to receive traffic shortly, after some period of inactivity the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state the platform 700 may power down for a short period of time, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 700 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, disconnecting from the network and not performing operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. The platform 700 goes into a very low power state, performs paging, where it again periodically wakes up to listen to the network, and then powers down again. The platform 700 may not receive data in this state. To receive data it must transition to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power-save modes may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (ranging from seconds to hours). During this time, the device cannot connect to the network at all and can power down completely. Any data sent during this time will incur significant delays, and it is assumed that the delays are tolerable.

Battery 730 can power platform 700, although in some examples platform 700 may be deployed and mounted at a fixed location or may have a power source tied to a power grid. Battery 730 may be a lithium ion battery, a metal air battery such as a zinc air battery, an aluminum air battery, a lithium air battery, or the like. In some implementations, such as V2X applications, battery 730 may be a typical lead acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 730 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a Battery Management System (BMS) or battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 700 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 730. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 730 to provide fault predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 730. The BMS may communicate the battery 730 information to the application circuit 705 or other components of the platform 700. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 705 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 730 or the current flow from the battery 730. The battery parameters may be used to determine operations that the platform 700 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

A power block, or other power source coupled to the power grid, may be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 730. In some embodiments, the power block XS30 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, via a loop antenna in the computer platform 700. In these embodiments, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The particular charging circuit selected may depend on the size of the battery 730 and thus the current required. Charging may be performed using, among others, the Airfuel standard promulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power.

The user interface circuitry 750 includes various input/output (I/O) devices present in or connected to the platform 700 and may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 700 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the platform 700. The user interface circuitry 750 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. The input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, among others, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for displaying or otherwise communicating information, such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information. The output device circuitry may include any number and/or combination of audio or visual displays, including one or more simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-digit character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where output such as characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated from operation of the platform 700. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emission devices, printers, and/or the like. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 721 may be used as an input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.), and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit with an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processing device may be included to read electronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device. Peripheral component interfaces include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

Although not shown, the components of platform 700 may communicate with each other using an appropriate bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a time-triggered protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be, for example, a proprietary bus/IX used in a SoC-based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an ^I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, among others.

8 illustrates exemplary components of a baseband circuit 810 and a radio front-end module (RFEM) 815, according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 810 corresponds to the baseband circuit 610 and 710 of FIGS. 6 and 7, respectively. The RFEM 815 corresponds to the RFEM 615 and 715 of FIGS. 6 and 7, respectively. As shown, the RFEM 815 may include a radio frequency (RF) circuit 806, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 808, and an antenna array 811 coupled together at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 810 includes circuitry and/or control logic configured to perform various wireless/network protocol and wireless control functions that enable communication with one or more wireless networks via the RF circuitry 806. The wireless control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 810 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 810 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions. The embodiments of the modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments. The baseband circuitry 810 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 806 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 806. The baseband circuitry 810 is configured to interface with the application circuitry 605/705 (see FIGS. 6 and 7) for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of the RF circuitry 806. The baseband circuitry 810 can handle a variety of radio control functions.

The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the baseband circuitry 810 may include one or more single or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 804A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 804B, a 5G/NR baseband processor 804C, or some other baseband processor 804D of other existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 804A-804D may be included in modules stored in memory 804G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 804E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 804A-804D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with appropriate bitstreams or logic blocks stored in corresponding memory cells. In various embodiments, the memory 804G may store program code of a real-time operating system (RTOS) that, when executed by the CPU 804E (or other baseband processor), causes the CPU 804E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 810, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of an RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®, Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®, ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by Qualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any other suitable RTOS as described herein. Additionally, the baseband circuitry 810 may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 804F. The audio DSP(s) 804F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements.

In some embodiments, each of the processors 804A-804E includes a respective memory interface for transmitting and receiving data to/from the memory 804G. The baseband circuit 810 may further include one or more interfaces communicatively coupled to other circuits/devices, such as an interface for transmitting and receiving data to a memory external to the baseband circuit 810, an application circuit interface for transmitting and receiving data to and from the application circuit 605/705 of FIGS. 6-8, an RF circuit interface for transmitting and receiving data to and from the RF circuit 806 of FIG. 8, a wireless hardware connection interface for transmitting and receiving data to and from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., a near field communication (NFC) component, a Bluetooth®/Bluetooth® low energy component, a Wi-Fi® component, and/or the like), and a power management interface for transmitting and receiving power or control signals to and from the PMIC 725.

In an alternative embodiment (which may be combined with the above-mentioned embodiments), the baseband circuitry 810 includes one or more digital baseband systems coupled to each other via an interconnection subsystem, as well as to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnection subsystem. Each of the interconnection subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a network-on-chip (NOC) structure, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, audio processing accelerator circuitry, data conversion circuitry, such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other similar components. In one aspect of the disclosure, the baseband circuitry 810 may include a protocol processing circuit having one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or the radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front-end module 815).

Although not shown in FIG. 8, in some implementations, the baseband circuitry 810 includes individual processing device(s) for executing one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") and individual processing device(s) for implementing PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the radio control functions described above. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, the protocol processing circuitry can operate LTE protocol entities and/or 5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 810 and/or the RF circuitry 806 are part of a mmWave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit. In a first example, the protocol processing circuitry operates MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second embodiment, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the baseband circuitry 810 and/or the RF circuitry 806 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system. In a second embodiment, the protocol processing circuitry operates Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 804G) for storing program code and data for operating the protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing the program code and performing various operations using the data. The baseband circuitry 810 may also support wireless communication for two or more wireless protocols.

The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 810 discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a soldered board containing one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged IC soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one embodiment, the components of the baseband circuitry 810 may be suitably combined in a single chip, or chipset, or may be located on the same circuit board. In another embodiment, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 810 and the RF circuitry 806 may be implemented together, for example, in a system-on-chip (SoC) or system-in-package (SiP). In another embodiment, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuitry 806 (or multiple instances of the RF circuitry 806). In yet another embodiment, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 810 and the application circuitry 605/705 may be implemented together as individual SoCs mounted on the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 810 may provide communications compatible with one or more wireless technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 810 may support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, WPANs. Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 810 is configured to support wireless communications of two or more wireless protocols may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

The RF circuitry 806 can enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 806 can include a receive signal path that can include circuitry for downconverting an RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 808 and providing a baseband signal to the baseband circuitry 810. The RF circuitry 806 can also include a transmit signal path that can include circuitry for upconverting a baseband signal provided by the baseband circuitry 810 and providing an RF output signal to the FEM circuitry 808 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 806 may include a mixer circuit 806a, an amplifier circuit 806b, and a filter circuit 806c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 806 may include a filter circuit 806c and a mixer circuit 806a. The RF circuitry 806 may also include a combiner circuit 806d for combining frequencies used by the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 808 based on a combined frequency provided by the combiner circuit 806d. The amplifier circuit 806b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 806c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuitry 810 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 806d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 808. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuit 810 and may be filtered by the filter circuit 806c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley-type image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 810 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuitry 806.

In some dual mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided to process signals in each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 806d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the present embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 806d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer that includes a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The combiner circuit 806d may be configured to combine an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 806a of the RF circuit 806 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 806d may be a fractional N/N+1 combiner.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), but that is not required. The divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 810 or the application circuitry 605/705 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuitry 605/705.

The synthesizer circuit 806d of the RF circuit 806 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on the implementation) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some exemplary embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded tunable delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal-phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 806d may be configured to generate the carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 806 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

The FEM circuitry 808 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the antenna array 811, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 806 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 808 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 806 for transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 811. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit or receive signal path may occur only in the RF circuitry 806, only in the FEM circuitry 808, or in both the RF circuitry 806 and the FEM circuitry 808.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 808 may include a TX/RX switch for switching between transmit and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 808 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 808 may include an LNA for amplifying a received RF signal and providing the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuitry 806). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 808 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 806) and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 811.

The antenna array 811 includes one or more antenna elements, each configured to convert an electrical signal into radio waves that travel through the air and convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuitry 810 is amplified and converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform) that is transmitted through the antenna elements of the antenna array 811, which includes one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed in multiple arrangements as known and/or described herein. The antenna array 811 may include microstrip antennas or printed antennas fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 811 may be formed as patches of metal foil (e.g., patch antennas) of various shapes and may be coupled to the RF circuitry 806 and/or the FEM circuitry 808 using metal transmission lines or the like.

The processors of the application circuits 605/705 and the processors of the baseband circuitry 810 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processors of the baseband circuitry 810 may be used alone or in combination to execute functions of layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1, while the processors of the application circuits 605/705 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and may also execute functions of layer 4 (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As referred to herein, layer 3 may include the RRC layer, which is described in more detail below. As referred to herein, layer 2 may include the MAC layer, the RLC layer, and the PDCP layer, which are described in more detail below. As referred to herein, layer 1 may include the PHY layer of the UE/RAN node, which is described in more detail below.

Figure 9 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device, according to various embodiments. In particular, Figure 9 includes an arrangement 900 illustrating the interconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The following description of Figure 9 is provided for various protocol layers/entities operating in conjunction with 5G/NR and LTE system standards, although some or all of the aspects of Figure 9 may be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

The protocol layers of the arrangement 900 may include one or more of a PHY 910, a MAC 920, an RLC 930, a PDCP 940, an SDAP 947, an RRC 955, and an NAS layer 957, in addition to other higher layer functions not shown. The protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., items 959, 956, 950, 949, 945, 935, 925, and 915 of FIG. 9) that may provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

The PHY 910 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 905 that can be received or transmitted to and from one or more other communication devices. The physical layer signals 905 can include one or more physical channels, as described herein. The PHY 910 may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, such as the RRC 955. The PHY 910 may also perform error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding/decoding of transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of the PHY 910 can process requests and provide instructions from an instance of the MAC 920 via one or more PHY-SAPs 915. According to some embodiments, requests and instructions communicated via PHY-SAP 915 may include one or more transport channels.

An instance of MAC 920 may process requests from and provide instructions to instances of RLC 930 via one or more MAC-SAPs 925. These requests and instructions communicated via MAC-SAPs 925 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 920 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs delivered to PHY 910 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered to PHY 910 via transport channels onto one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

An instance of RLC 930 may process requests from and provide instructions to an instance of PDCP 940 via one or more Radio Link Control Service Access Points (RLC-SAPs) 935. These requests and instructions communicated via RLC-SAPs 935 may include one or more RLC channels. RLC 930 may operate in multiple modes of operation, including Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). RLC 930 may perform higher layer protocol data unit (PDU) transfer, error correction with automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfer, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfer. RLC 930 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfer, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfer, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detect protocol errors for AM data transfer, and perform RLC re-establishment.

An instance of PDCP 940 may process requests and provide instructions to an instance of RRC 955 and/or an instance of SDAP 947 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAPs) 945. These requests and instructions communicated via PDCP-SAPs 945 may comprise one or more radio bearers. PDCP 940 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs upon lower layer re-establishment, remove duplicates of lower layer SDUs upon lower layer re-establishment for radio bearers mapped onto RLC AM, cipher and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discarding of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

An instance of SDAP 947 can process requests and provide indications from one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAPs 949. These requests and indications communicated via SDAP-SAPs 949 can include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 947 can map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa and can also mark QFI in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 947 may be configured for an individual PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 310 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRB(s) in two different ways: reflective mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, SDAP 947 in UE 301 may monitor the QFI of DL packets for each DRB and can apply the same mapping for packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 947 of the UE 301 can map UL packets belonging to the QoS flow(s) corresponding to the QoS flow ID(s) and PDU session(s) observed in the DL packets for that DRB. To enable reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 510 can mark DL packets on the Uu interface with the QoS flow ID. Explicit mapping may include the RRC 955 configuring the SDAP 947 with an explicit QoS flow to DRB mapping rule, which can be stored and followed by the SDAP 947. In an embodiment, the SDAP 947 may be used only in NR implementations and not in LTE implementations.

The RRC 955 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 910, MAC 920, RLC 930, PDCP 940, and SDAP 947, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 955 may process requests and provide instructions from one or more NAS entities 957, via one or more RRC-SAPs 956. The main services and functions of the RRC 955 include broadcasting system information (e.g., contained in the MIB or NAS-related SIB or System Information Block (SIB)), broadcasting system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of the RRC connection between the UE 301 and the RAN 310 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIB may each include one or more IEs that may contain individual data fields or data structures.

NAS 957 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 301 and AMF 521. NAS 957 may support mobility and session management procedures for UE 301 to establish and maintain IP connectivity between UE 301 and the P-GW of the LTE system.

According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of the array 900 may be implemented in the UE 301, the RAN node 311, the AMF 521 in an NR implementation or the MME 421 in an LTE implementation, the UPF 502 in an NR implementation or the S-GW 422 and P-GW 423 in an LTE implementation, etc., used in the control plane or user plane communication protocol stack between the above-mentioned devices. In such an embodiment, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of the UE 301, the gNB 311, the AMF 521, etc. may communicate with a respective peer protocol entity that may be implemented in or on another device using the services of the respective lower layer protocol entity to perform such communication. In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of gNB311 may host the gNB's RRC955, SDAP947, and PDCP940, which control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DU of gNB311 may host the gNB's RLC930, MAC920, and PHY910, respectively.

In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may comprise, from top to bottom, NAS 957, RRC 955, PDCP 940, RLC 930, MAC 920, and PHY 910. In this example, upper layers 960 may be built on top of NAS 957, including IP layer 961, SCTP 962, and application layer signaling protocol (AP) 963.

In an NR implementation, AP963 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 963 for an NG interface 313 defined between an NG-RAN node 311 and an AMF 521, or AP963 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 963 for an Xn interface 312 defined between two or more RAN nodes 311.

The functionality of the NG interface 313 may be supported by the NG-AP 963 and may include Elementary Procedures (EP). The NG-AP EP may be the unit of interaction between the NG-RAN node 311 and the AMF 521. The NG-AP 963 services may include two groups: UE-related services (e.g., services related to the UE 301) and non-UE-related services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 311 and the AMF 521). These services include, but are not limited to, a paging function for sending paging requests to NG-RAN nodes 311 included in a particular paging area; a UE context management function for enabling the AMF 521 to establish, modify, and/or release UE context in the AMF 521 and the NG-RAN nodes 311; a mobility function for the UE 301 in ECM-CONNECTED mode for intra-system HO supporting mobility within the NG-RAN and inter-system HO supporting mobility between EPS systems; and transmitting NAS messages between the UE 301 and the AMF 521. or a NAS signaling transmission function for rerouting, a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 521 and the UE 301, an NG interface management function(s) for configuring the NG interface and monitoring errors via the NG interface, an alert message transmission function for forwarding alert messages via the NG interface or providing a means to cancel ongoing broadcasts of alert messages, a Configuration Transfer function for requesting and transferring RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 311 via the CN 320, and/or other similar functions.

XnAP 963 may support the functionality of the Xn interface 312 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures used to handle UE mobility within the NG RAN 311 (or E-UTRAN 410), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context lookup and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, and dual connectivity related procedures. XnAP global procedures may include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 301, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, and cell activation procedures.

In an LTE implementation, the AP 963 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 963 for an S1 interface 313 defined between an E-UTRAN node 311 and an MME, or the AP 963 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 963 for an X2 interface 312 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 311.

The S1 Application Protocol Layer (S1-AP) 963 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP described above, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be the unit of interaction between the E-UTRAN node 311 and the MME 421 in the LTE CN 320. The S1-AP 963 services may include two groups: UE-related services and non-UE-related services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to, E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

X2AP 963 may support the functionality of the X2 interface 312 and may include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. X2AP basic mobility procedures may include procedures used to handle UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 320, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context lookup and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, and dual connectivity related procedures. X2AP global procedures may include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 301, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, and cell activation procedures.

The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 962 can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). SCTP 962 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 311 and the AMF 521/MME 421 based in part on the IP protocol supported by IP 961. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 961 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 961 can use point-to-point transmission to deliver and convey PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 311 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF to exchange information.

In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may comprise, from highest to lowest layer, SDAP 947, PDCP 940, RLC 930, MAC 920, and PHY 910. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE 301, the RAN node 311, and the UPF 502, or may be used for communication between the S-GW 422 and the P-GW 423, in an LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layers 951 may be built on top of the SDAP 947 and may include a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and IP Security Layer (UDP/IP) 952, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane Layer (GTP-U) 953, and a User Plane PDU Layer (UP PDU) 963.

The transport network layer 954 (also called the "transport layer") may be built on top of IP transport and may carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs) using GTP-U 953 on top of the UDP/IP layer 952 (which includes a UDP layer and an IP layer). The IP layer (also called the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

GTP-U 953 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The transmitted user data may be packets in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. UDP/IP 952 may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers to accommodate different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on selected data flows. The RAN node 311 and the S-GW 422 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer (e.g., PHY 910), the L2 layer (e.g., MAC 920, RLC 930, PDCP 940, and/or SDAP 947), the UDP/IP layer 952, and GTP-U 953. The S-GW 422 and the P-GW 423 can use the S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer, the L2 layer, the UDP layer/IP layer 952, and the GTP-U 953. As previously mentioned, the NAS protocol can support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE 301 to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 301 and the P-GW 423.

Furthermore, although not shown in FIG. 9, there may be an application layer above the AP 963 and/or the transport network layer 954. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 301, the RAN node 311, or other network element interacts with a software application executed by, for example, the application circuit 605 or the application circuit 705. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with a communication system of the UE 301 or the RAN node 311, such as the baseband circuit 810. In some implementations, the IP layer and/or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5-7 or portions thereof of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI layer 7-application layer, OSI layer 6-presentation layer, and OSI layer 5-session layer).

10 illustrates components of a core network according to various embodiments. The components of CN 420 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In embodiments, the components of CN 520 may be implemented in the same or similar manner as described herein with respect to the components of CN 420. In some embodiments, NFV is utilized to virtualize any or all of the network node functions described above via executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (described in more detail below). A logical instantiation of CN 420 may be referred to as a network slice 1001, and each logical instantiation of CN 420 may provide particular network capabilities and network characteristics. A logical instantiation of a portion of CN 420 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 1002 (e.g., network sub-slice 1002 is shown to include P-GW 423 and PCRF 426).

As used herein, the terms "instance," "instantiation," etc., can refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" can refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. A network instance can refer to information identifying a domain that may be used for traffic detection and routing in the case of different IP domains or overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance can refer to a set of network function (NF) instances and resources (e.g., compute, storage, and networking resources) required to deploy a network slice.

For 5G systems (see, for example, FIG. 5), a network slice always includes a RAN part and a CN part. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can realize different network slices by scheduling and by providing different L1/L2 configurations. The UE 501 provides assistance information for network slice selection in appropriate RRC messages, if provided by the NAS. The network can support multiple slices, but the UE does not need to support 8 slices simultaneously.

A network slice may include CN520 control plane and user plane NFs, NG-RAN510 in the serving PLMN, and N3IWF functions in the serving PLMN. Each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI and/or may have a different SST. The NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by the S-NSSAI. Network slices may differ in supported features and network feature optimizations, and/or multiple network slice instances may deliver the same service/feature for different groups of UE501 (e.g., enterprise users). For example, each network slice may deliver different committed services and/or may be dedicated to a particular customer or enterprise. In this example, each network slice may have a different NSSAI with the same SST but different slice nuclei. Furthermore, a single UE may be served by one or more network slice instances simultaneously via a 5G AN and associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. Furthermore, the AMF521 instance serving an individual UE501 may belong to each of the network slice instances serving that UE.

Network slicing in the NG-RAN 510 includes RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic for different preconfigured network slices. Slice awareness in the NG-RAN 510 is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling including PDU session resource information. How the NG-RAN 510 supports slice activation from the perspective of the NG-RAN functions (e.g., the set of network functions that comprise each slice) is implementation dependent. The NG-RAN 510 selects the RAN part of the network slice using assistance information provided by the UE 501 or the 5GC 520, which unambiguously identifies one or more of the preconfigured network slices in the PLMN. The NG-RAN 510 also supports resource management and policy enforcement between slices according to the SLA. A single NG-RAN node may support multiple slices, and the NG-RAN 510 may also apply appropriate RRM policies for each supported slice with the SLA in place. The NG-RAN 510 may also support QoS differentiation within a slice.

NG-RAN 510 may also use UE assistance information to select AMF 521 during initial attach, if available. NG-RAN 510 uses the assistance information to route initial NAS to AMF 521. If NG-RAN 510 cannot select AMF 521 using the assistance information, or if UE 501 does not provide such information at all, NG-RAN 510 sends NAS signaling to a default AMF 521 that may be in a pool of AMFs 521. For subsequent accesses, UE 501 provides a temporary ID (temp ID) assigned to UE 501 by 5GC 520 to enable NG-RAN 510 to route NAS messages to the appropriate AMF 521 as long as the temp ID ID is valid. NG-RAN 510 recognizes and can reach the AMF 521 associated with the temp ID. Otherwise, the method for initial attachment applies.

The NG-RAN 510 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN 510 resource isolation may be achieved by RRM policies and protection mechanisms, which are necessary to avoid starvation of shared resources if one slice breaks a service level agreement for another slice. In some implementations, it is possible to fully dedicate NG-RAN 510 resources to a particular slice. The manner in which the NG-RAN 510 supports resource isolation is implementation dependent.

Some slices may be available only in parts of the network. NG-RAN 510 knowledge of slices supported in its neighboring cells may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. Slice availability may be static within the registration area of the UE. NG-RAN 510 and 5GC 520 are responsible for handling service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. Granting or denying access to a slice may depend on factors such as slice support, resource availability, and support of the requested service by NG-RAN 510.

UE501 may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. If UE501 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained and for intra-frequency cell reselection, UE501 attempts to camp on the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, a dedicated priority can be used to control the frequency on which UE501 is camped. 5GC520 will validate that UE501 has the right to access the network slice. Before receiving the initial context setup request message, NG-RAN510 may be allowed to apply some interim/local policies based on knowledge of the particular slice to which UE501 is requesting access. During the initial context setup, NG-RAN510 is informed about the slice for which resources are being requested.

The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more NFs, or alternatively may be executed on proprietary hardware and virtualized on physical resources including a combination of industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, the NFV system may be used to execute a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components/functions.

Figure 11 is a block diagram illustrating components of a system 1100 supporting NFV, according to some example embodiments. System 1100 is shown as including VIM 1102, NFVI 1104, VNFM 1106, VNF 1108, EM 1110, NFVO 1112, and NM 1114.

VIM 1102 manages the resources of NFVI 1104. NFVI 1104 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including a hypervisor) used to run system 1100. VIM 1102 may manage the lifecycle of virtual resources by NFVI 1104 (e.g., creation, maintenance, and teardown of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, faults, and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

VNFM 1106 may manage VNFs 1108. VNFs 1108 may be used to execute EPC components/functions. VNFM 1106 may manage the lifecycle of VNFs 1108 and track performance, faults, and security of the virtual aspects of VNFs 1108. EM 1110 may track performance, faults, and security of the functional aspects of VNFs 1108. Tracking data from VNFM 1106 and EM 1110 may include performance measurement PM data used by, for example, VIM 1102 or NFVI 1104. Both VNFM 1106 and EM 1110 may scale up/down the amount of VNFs in system 1100.

NFVO1112 can coordinate, grant, release, and reserve resources of NFVI1104 to provide the requested service (e.g., to execute an EPC function, component, or slice). NM1114 can provide a package of end-user functions responsible for management of the network, which may include network elements having VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of VNFs may be done via EM1110).

12 is a block diagram illustrating components that can read instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and execute any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. Specifically, FIG. 12 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1200 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory/storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240. In embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1202 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices for utilizing the hardware resources 1200.

Processor 1210 may include, for example, processor 1212 and processor 1214. Processor 1210(s) may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP, such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

Memory/storage 1220 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. Memory/storage 1220 may include any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

Communication resources 1230 may include interconnect or network interface components or other devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 over network 1208. For example, communication resources 1230 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, a Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) component, a Wi-Fi® component, and other communication components.

The instructions 1250 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 1210 to execute any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1250 may reside, in whole or in part, in at least one of the processors 1210 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory/storage 1220, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, any portion of the instructions 1250 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1200 from any combination of the peripherals 1204 or the database 1206. Thus, the memory of the processor 1210, the memory/storage 1220, the peripherals 1204, and the database 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components described in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as described in the exemplary section below. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below. As another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below in the exemplary section.
Working Example

Example 1 may include a method in which the UE can receive one or more indications in the scheduling DCI and/or higher layer signaling, or via implicit rules, to determine when to prioritize/use grant-based transmission and when not to transmit using configured grant-free resources.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or any other example herein, and the resource configuration for the DL assignment, or UL grant, or UL configuration grant may include one or more bit fields including one or more bits for a prioritization indication of transmissions using the indicated/configured resources.

Example 3 may include the method of Examples 1 and 2 or any other example herein, where further prioritization is defined for UL transmissions across UL component carriers (CCs) in the case of power limitation in a scenario involving simultaneous UL transmissions across multiple UL CCs for a UE configured with UL carrier aggregation.

Example 4 may include a method for constructing a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebook for a UE that is capable of and configured to simultaneously receive multiple unicast PDSCHs that may overlap in the time domain.

Example 5 may include a method in which, for a given HARQ-ACK_A in response to a scheduled PDSCH_A, a UE configured with out-of-order HARQ-ACK for PDSCH can expect at most one PDSCH with earlier HARQ-ACK feedback timing compared to a previously received HARQ-ACK_A for PDSCH_A.

Example 6 may include a method in which, for a given PUSCH_A scheduled by PDCCH_A, a UE configured for out-of-order UL scheduling can expect at most one PUSCH that can be scheduled by a PDCCH received after PDCCH_A, such that the PUSCH is transmitted before the start of PUSCH_A.

Example 7 may include an apparatus including means for performing one or more elements of a method described or related to any of Examples 1-6, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 8 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described or related to any of Examples 1-6, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 9 may include an apparatus including logic, modules, or circuitry for performing one or more elements of a method described or related to any of Examples 1-6, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 10 may include any method, technique, or process described or related to any of Examples 1-6, or any part or portion thereof.

Example 11 may include an apparatus that includes one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media that include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portions thereof, described or related to any of Examples 1-6.

Example 12 may include a signal described in or related to any of Examples 1-6, or a part or portion thereof.

Example 13 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 14 may include a method of communicating within a wireless network as illustrated and described herein.

Example 15 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example 16 may include a device providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above examples can be combined with any other example (or combination of examples) unless otherwise specified. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the implementations to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practicing embodiments consistent with the present disclosure.
Abbreviations

For purposes of this document, the following abbreviations may be applied to the examples and embodiments discussed herein:

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

4G 4th generation

5G 5th generation

5GC 5G core network

ACK confirmation

AF application functions

AM Check Mode

AMBR aggregate maximum bitrate

AMF access and movement management function

AN Access network

ANR Automatic Neighbor Relations

AP application protocol, antenna port, access point

API Application Programming Interface

APN Access Point Name

ARP allocation and retention priority

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

AS access layer

ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Representation 1

AUSF authentication server function

AWGN Additive white Gaussian noise

BCH Broadcast Channel

BER Bit error rate

BFD beam failure detection

BLER Block Error Rate

BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

BRAS Broadband remote access server

BSS Business Support System

BS base station

BSR Buffer Status Report

BW Bandwidth

BWP Bandwidth part

C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity

CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority

CAPEX capital investment

CBRA Contention-based random access

CC Component carrier, country code, cryptographic checksum

CCA Clear Channel Assessment

CCE Control Channel Element

CCCH Common Control Channel

CE Coverage Expansion

CDM Content Delivery Network

CDMA code division multiple access

CFRA Contention-Free Random Access

CG Cell Group

CI Cell Identity

CID Cell ID (e.g., positioning method)

CIM Common Information Model

CIR Carrier to interference ratio

CK encryption key

CM connection management, conditionally required

CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service

CMD Commands

CMS Cloud Management System

CO Conditional options

CoMP Cooperative Multipoint

CORESET Control resource set

COTS: Commercially available products that can be purchased at any time

CP Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Connection Point

CPD Connection Point Descriptor

CPE Customer Premises Equipment

CPICH Common Pilot Channel

CQI Channel Quality Indicator

CPU CSI processing unit, central processing unit

C/R Command/Response field bit

CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN

CRB Common Resource Block

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRI Channel state information resource indicator, CSI-RS resource indicator

C-RNTI Cell RNTI

CS circuit switching

CSAR Cloud Service Archive

CSI Channel State Information

CSI-IM CSI interference measurement value

CSI-RS CSI reference signal

CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power

CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal reception quality

CSI SINR CSI signal to interference and noise ratio

CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access

CSMA/CA CSMA with collision avoidance

CSS common search space, cell-specific search space

CTS Clear to send

CW code word

CWS conflict window size

D2D Device to Device

DC dual connectivity, direct current

DCI Downlink control information

DF Deployment Flavor

DL Downlink

DMTF Decentralized Management Task Force

DPDK Data Plane Development Kit

DM-RS, DMRS demodulation reference signal

DN Data Network

DRB Data Radio Bearer

DRS Discovery Reference Signal

DRX discontinuous reception

DSL Domain Specific Language Digital Subscriber Line

DSLAM DSL access multiplexer

DwPTS Downlink pilot time slot

E-LAN Ethernet local area network

E2E End-to-end

ECCA Extended Clear Channel Assessment, Extended CCA

ECCE Extended Control Channel Element, Extended CCE

ED Energy detection

EDGE Extended Data for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution)

EGMF Exposure Governance Management Function

EGPRS Extended GPRS

EIR Equipment Identity Register

eLAA enhanced license assist access, enhanced LAA

EM Element Manager

eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

EMS Element Management System

eNB Evolved Node B, E-UTRAN Node B

EN-DC E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity

EPC Evolved Packet Core

EPDCCH Enhanced PDCCH, Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel

EPRE Energy per resource element

EPS Evolved Packet System

EREG Enhanced REG, Enhanced Resource Element Group

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System

eUICC Embedded UICC, Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card

E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

EV2X Enhanced V2X

F1AP F1 Application Protocol

F1-C F1 control plane interface

F1-U F1 user plane interface

FACCH Fast Associated Control Channel

FACCH/F Fast Associated Control Channel/Full Rate

FACCH/H High-speed associated control channel/half rate

FACH Forward Access Channel

FAUSCH High Speed Uplink Signaling Channel

FB Function block

FBI feedback information

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FCCH Frequency correction channel

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FDM frequency division multiplexing

FDMA code division multiple access

FE Front End

FEC Forward Error Correction

Further research on FFS

FFT Fast Fourier Transform

feLAA further enhanced license support access, further enhanced LAA

FN Frame number

FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array

FR Frequency range

G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE radio access network

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

GLONASS Global Navigation Satellite System (Global Navigation Satellite System)

gNB Next Generation Node B

gNB-CU gNB-concentration unit, next-generation NodeB centralization unit

gNB-DU gNB distributed unit, next-generation NodeB distributed unit

GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Group Special Mobile

GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

GTP-U GPRS tunneling protocol for user plane

GTS sleep request signal (WUS related)

GUMMEI Globally unique MME identifier

GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity

HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HANDO, HO Handover

HFN Hyperframe number

HHO Hard Handover

HLR Home Location Register

HN Home Network

HO Handover

HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network

HSDPA high speed downlink packet access

HSN Hopping sequence number

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HSS Home Subscriber Server

HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http/1.1 over SSL, i.e. port 443)

I-Block Information Block

ICCID Integrated Card Identification

ICIC Inter-cell interference coordination

ID identity, identifier

IDFT Inverse discrete Fourier transform

IE Information Element

IBE In-band Emissions

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IEI Information Element Identifier

IEIDL information element identifier data length

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

IF Infrastructure

IM interference measurement, intermodulation, IP multimedia

IMC IMS Credentials

IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

IMGI International Mobile Group Identity

IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity

IMPU IP Multimedia Public Identity

IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity Number

IoT Internet of Things

IP Internet Protocol

IPsec IP security, Internet Protocol security

IP-CAN IP connection access network

IP-M IP Multicast

IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6

IR Infrared

IS synchronized

IRP integration reference point

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

ISIM IM Service Identity Module

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ISP Internet Service Provider

IWF interaction function

I-WLAN Interconnected WLAN

K Convolutional code constraint length, USIM individual key

kB Kilobyte (1000 bytes)

kbps kilobits per second

Kc encryption key

Ki Individual subscriber authentication key

KPI Key Performance Indicators

KQI Key Quality Indicator

KSI Key Set Identifier

ksps kilosymbols per second

KVM Kernel Virtual Machine

L1 layer 1 (physical layer)

L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power

L2 Layer 2 (Data Link Layer)

L3 Layer 3 (Network Layer)

LAA License Assistance Access

LAN Local Area Network

LBT Listen Before Talk

LCM Lifecycle Management

LCR Low Chip Rate

LCS Location Services

LCID Logical channel ID

LI Layer Indicator

LLC Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility

LPLMN Local PLMN

LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

LSB Least significant bit

LTE Long Term Evolution

LWA LTE-WLAN aggregation

LTE/WLAN radio level integration with LWIP IPsec tunnels

LTE Long Term Evolution

M2M Machine to Machine

MAC Media Access Control (protocol layer context)

MAC Message Authentication Code (security/cryptographic context)

MAC-A MAC used for authentication and key agreement (TSG TWG3 context)

MAC-I MAC used for data integrity of signaling messages (TSG TWG3 context)

MANO Management and Orchestration

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network

MCC Mobile Country Code

MCG Master Cell Group

MCOT Maximum channel occupancy time

MCS modulation and coding scheme

MDAF management data analysis function

MDAS Management Data Analysis Service

Minimizing MDT driving tests

ME Mobile devices

MeNB Master eNB

MER Message error rate

MGL Measurement gap length

MGRP Measurement Gap Repetition Period

MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base

MIMO multiple input multiple output

MLC Mobile Location Center

MM Mobility Management

MME Mobility Management Entity

MN Master Node

MO Measurement object, mobile origination

MPBCH MTC physical broadcast channel

MPDCCH MTC physical downlink control channel

MPDSCH MTC physical downlink shared channel

MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access Channel

MPUSCH MTC physical uplink shared channel

MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching

MS Mobile Station

MSB Most significant bit

MSC Mobile Switching Center

MSI Minimum system information, MCH scheduling information

MSID Mobile Station Identifier

MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number

MSISDN Mobile subscriber ISDN number

MT Mobile termination, mobile termination

MTC Machine Type Communication

mMTC Large-scale MTC, large-scale machine-based communication

MU-MIMO Multi-user MIMO

MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS

NACK Negative response

NAI Network Access Identifier

NAS non-access layer

NCT network connection topology

NEC network capabilities disclosure

NE-DC NR-E-UTRA dual connectivity

NEF network disclosure function

NF Network function

NFP network transfer path

NFPD network transfer path descriptor

NFV Network Function Virtualization

NFVI NFV Infrastructure

NFVO NFV Orchestrator

NG Next Generation

NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity

NM Network Manager

NMS Network Management System

N-PoP Network Point of Presence

NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB

NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel

NPDCCH Narrowband physical downlink control channel

NPDSCH Narrowband physical downlink shared channel

NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access Channel

NPUSCH Narrowband physical uplink shared channel

NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal

NSSS Narrowband secondary synchronization signal

NR New Radio, Neighborhood Relations

NRF NF repository function

NRS Narrowband reference signal

NS Network Services

NSA non-standalone operating mode

NSD Network Service Descriptor

NSR network service record

NSSAI Network slice selection support information

S-NNSAI Single NSSAI

NSSF network slice selection function

NW Network

NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, narrowband WUS

NZP Non-zero power

O&M Operation and maintenance

ODU2 Optical Channel Data Unit - Type 2

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

OOB Out of Band

OOS Out of sync

OPEX operating costs

OSI Other system information

OSS Operation Support System

OTA over-the-air

PAPR Peak to average power ratio

PAR Peak to average ratio

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

PC power control, personal computer

PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC

PCell Primary cell

PCI physical cell ID, physical cell identity

PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

PCF policy control function

PCRF policy control and charging rule function

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

PDN Packet Data Network, Public Data Network

PDSCH Physical downlink shared channel

PDU Protocol Data Unit

PEI Permanent Equipment Identifier

PFD Packet Flow Description

P-GW PDN Gateway

PHICH Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel

PHY Physical layer

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

PIN Personal Identification Number

PM performance measurement

PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator

PNF Physical network function

PNFD Physical network function descriptor

PNFR Physical Network Function Record

POC PTT via cellular

PP, PTP Point to Point

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

PRACH Physical RACH

PRB Physical Resource Block

PRG Physical resource block group

ProSe Proximity Services, Proximity-Based Services

PRS Positioning reference signal

PRR packet receiving radio

PS packet service

PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel

PSDCH Physical sidelink downlink channel

PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel

PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel

PSCell Primary SCell

PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

PT-RS Phase tracking reference signal

PTT Push to Talk

PUCCH Physical uplink control channel

PUSCH Physical uplink shared channel

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

QCI QoS class of identifier

QCL Quasi-collocation

QFI QoS flow ID, QoS flow identifier

QoS Quality of Service

QPSK Quadrature (quaternary) phase shift keying

QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI

RAB Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst

RACH Random Access Channel

Remote authentication dial in RADIUS user service

RAN Radio Access Network

RAND Random number (used for authentication)

RAR Random Access Response

RAT Radio Access Technology

RAU Routing area update

RB Resource block, radio bearer

RBG Resource Block Group

REG Resource element group

Release

REQ Request

RF Radio Frequency

RI Rank Indicator

RIV Resource indicator value

RL Radio link

RLC Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control Layer

RLC AM RLC acknowledgement mode

RLC UM RLC unacknowledged mode

RLF Radio link failure

RLM Radio Link Monitoring

Reference signal for RLM-RS RLM

RM Registration Management

RMC Reference Measurement Channel

RMSI Remaining MSI, minimum remaining system information

RN Relay node

RNC Radio Network Controller

RNL Radio Network Layer

RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

ROHC robust header compression

RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control Layer

RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference signal

RSRP Reference signal received power

RSRQ Reference signal reception quality

RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

RSU Roadside unit

RSTD Reference signal time difference

RTP Real Time Protocol

RTS ready to send

RTT Round Trip Time

Rx Receiver, receiver

S1AP S1 Application Protocol

S1-MME S1 for control plane

S1-U S1 for user plane

S-GW Serving Gateway

S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity

S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier

SA Standalone operation mode

SAE system architecture evolution

SAP service access point

SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor

SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

SCC Secondary component carrier, secondary CC

SCell Secondary cell

SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

SCG Secondary Cell Group

SCM Security Context Management

SCS subcarrier spacing

SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol

SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocol Layer

SDL auxiliary downlink

SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function

SDP Session Description Protocol

SDSF Structured Data Storage Function

SDU Service Data Unit

SEAF Security Anchor Function

SeNB secondary eNB

SEPP security edge protection proxy

SFI slot format indication

SFTD Space Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and Frame Timing Difference

SFN System Frame Number

SgNB Secondary gNB

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

S-GW Serving Gateway

SI System Information

SI-RNTI System Information RNTI

SIB System Information Block

SIM Subscriber Identity Module

SIP Session Initiation Protocol

SiP System in Package

SL side link

SLA Service Level Agreement

SM session management

SMF session management function

SMS Short Message Service

SMSF SMS function

SMTC SSB-based measurement timing configuration

SN Secondary node, sequence number

SoC System on Chip

SON Self-organizing network

SpCell dedicated cell

SP-CSI-RNTI Anti-persistent CSI RNTI

SPS Anti-persistent Scheduling

SQN sequence number

SR Scheduling request

SRB Signaling Radio Bearer

SRS Sounding Reference Signal

SS sync signal

SSB synchronization signal block, SS/PBCH block

SSBRI SS/PBCH block resource indicator, synchronization signal block resource indicator

SSC Session and Service Continuity

SS-RSRP Synchronization signal based reference signal received power

SS-RSRQ Synchronization signal-based reference signal reception quality

SS-SINR Synchronization signal based signal to noise and interference ratio

SSS Secondary sync signal

SSSG Search Space Set Group

SSSIF Search space set indicator

SST slice/service type

SU-MIMO Single user MIMO

SUL auxiliary uplink

TA Timing Advance, Tracking Area

TAC Tracking Area Code

TAG Timing Advance Group

TAU tracking area update

TB Transport Block

TBS Transport block size

TBD To Be Defined

TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator

TCP Transmission Communication Protocol

TDD time division duplex

TDM time division multiplexing

TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

TE terminal equipment

TEID Tunnel endpoint identifier

TFT traffic flow template

TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

TNL Transport Network Layer

TPC Transmission power control

TPMI Transmit Precoding Matrix Indicator

TR Technical Report

TRP, TRxP Transmitting and receiving point

TRS Tracking Reference Signal

TRx transceiver

TS Technical specifications, technical standards

TTI Transmission Time Interval

Tx transmission, transmitter

U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

UCI Uplink control information

UE User Equipment

UDM Integrated Data Management

UDP User Datagram Protocol

UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Functions

UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

UL uplink

UM Unacknowledged Mode

UML Unified Modeling Language

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

UP User Plane

UPF User Plane Function

URI Uniform Resource Identifier

URL Uniform Resource Locator

URLLC Ultra-reliable and low latency

USB Universal Serial Bus

USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

USS UE unique search space

UTRA UMTS terminal radio access

UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

UwPTS Uplink pilot time slot

V2I Vehicle to Infrastructure

V2P Vehicle to Pedestrian

V2V Vehicle to Vehicle

V2X Vehicle to Everything

VIM Virtualization Infrastructure Manager

VL Virtual link,

VLAN Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network

VM Virtual Machine

VNF Virtualized Network Function

VNFFG VNF transfer graph

VNFFGD VNF forwarding graph descriptor

VNFM VNF Manager

VoIP Voice over IP, Voice over Internet Protocol

VPLMN Visited public mobile land network

VPN Virtual Private Network

VRB Virtual Resource Block

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WLAN Wireless local area network

WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network

X2-C X2-Control Plane

X2-U X2-user plane

XML Extensible Markup Language

XRES Expected user response

XOR Exclusive OR

ZC Zadoff-Chu

ZP Zero Power Terminology

For purposes of this specification, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

As used herein, the term "circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes hardware components configured to provide a described functionality, such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or groups) and/or memories (shared, dedicated, or groups), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), composite PLDs (CPLDs), high-volume PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc. In some embodiments, a circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or combinations of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code used to perform the functions of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

As used herein, the term "processor circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term "processor circuitry" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. The terms "application circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" are considered synonymous with "processor circuitry" and may be referred to as "processor circuitry."

As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I/O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and/or the like.

As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device having wireless communication capabilities and may represent a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, wireless equipment, reconfigurable wireless equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, and the like. Additionally, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and/or may be referred to as a networked computer, networked hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic device, computing device, or components thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and/or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and/or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

As used herein, the terms "equipment," "computer equipment," and the like refer to a computing device or computer system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual machine" is a virtual machine image implemented by a device with a dedicated hypervisor to virtualize or emulate a computing device or provide specific computing resources.

The term "resource" as used herein refers to physical or virtual devices, physical or virtual components in a computing environment, and/or physical or virtual components in a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or usage, power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, networks, databases and applications, workload units, etc. A "hardware resource" may refer to computational, storage, and/or network resources provided by a physical hardware element. A "virtualized resource" may refer to computational, storage, and/or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to resources accessible by a computer device/system over a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any type of shared entity for providing services, and may include computing resources and/or network resources. A system resource may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a server, where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium used to communicate data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous and/or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and/or any other similar terminology indicating a path or medium over which data is communicated. Additionally, as used herein, the term "link" refers to a connection between two devices over a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiation," and the like refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

The terms "coupled" and "communicatively coupled," along with their derivatives, are used herein. The term "coupled" can mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, can mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other while cooperating or interacting with each other, and/or can mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" can mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" can mean that two or more elements can be in contact with each other by communication means, including via wires or other interconnections, via wireless communication channels or inks, and/or the like.

The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to an individual piece of content in an information element or data element that contains the content.

The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

The term "SSB" refers to SS/PBCH block.

The term "primary cell" refers to the MCG cell operating on the primary frequency and on which the UE performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure.

"Primary SCG cell" refers to the SCG cell to which the UE randomly accesses when reconfiguring using the synchronization procedure for DC operation.

The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources above a dedicated cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells including a PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

The term "serving cell" refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED that is not configured with CA/DC, and there is only one serving cell that consists of the primary cell.

The term "serving cells" refers to the set of cells including the special cells and all secondary cells for UEs in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term "dedicated cell" refers to a PCell of an MCG or a PSCell of an SCG for DC operation. Otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to a P cell.

As discussed above, aspects of the present technology may include collecting and using data available from various sources to, for example, improve or enhance functionality. This disclosure contemplates that in some examples, this collected data may include personal information data that uniquely identifies a particular person or that can be used to contact or locate a particular person. Such personal information data may include demographic data, location-based data, phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter IDs, addresses, data or records regarding the user's health or fitness level (e.g., vital sign measurements, medication information, exercise information), birth date, or any other identifying or personal information. This disclosure recognizes that the use of such personal information data in the present technology may be used to the user's benefit.

This disclosure contemplates that entities involved in the collection, analysis, disclosure, transmission, storage, or other use of such personal information data will adhere to robust privacy policies and/or practices. Specifically, such entities should implement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for keeping personal information data confidential and secure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users and should be updated as data collection and/or use changes. Personal information from users should be collected for the entity's lawful and legitimate use and should not be shared or sold except for those lawful uses. Furthermore, such collection/sharing should be conducted after notifying and obtaining consent from the user. Furthermore, such entities should consider taking all necessary measures to protect and secure access to such personal information data and ensure that others having access to that personal information data adhere to their privacy policies and procedures. Furthermore, such entities may subject themselves to third-party assessments to attest to their adherence to widely accepted privacy policies and practices. Moreover, policies and practices should be adapted to the specific types of personal information data being collected and/or accessed, and should conform to applicable laws and standards, including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For example, in the United States, collection or access of certain health data may be governed by federal and/or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while health data in other countries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should be addressed accordingly. Therefore, different privacy practices should be maintained with respect to different types of personal data in each country.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates embodiments in which a user selectively blocks use of or access to personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates that hardware and/or software elements may be provided to prevent or block access to such personal information data. For example, the present technology may be configured to allow a user to select to "opt-in" or "opt-out" of participating in the collection of personal information data during registration for the service or at any time thereafter. In addition to providing "opt-in" and "opt-out" options, the present disclosure contemplates providing notice regarding access or use of personal information. For example, the user may be notified upon download of an app that will access the user's personal information data, and then again immediately prior to the personal information data being accessed by the app.

Further, it is the intent of this disclosure that personal information data should be managed and processed in a manner that minimizes the risk of unintended or unauthorized access or use. Risks can be minimized by limiting collection of data and deleting it when it is no longer needed. Furthermore, where applicable, de-identification of data can be used to protect user privacy in certain health-related applications. De-identification can be facilitated by removing certain identifiers (e.g., date of birth, etc.) where appropriate, controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g., collecting location data at a city level rather than an address level), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data across users), and/or other methods.

Thus, while this disclosure broadly encompasses the use of personal information data to implement one or more of the various disclosed embodiments, this disclosure also contemplates that the various embodiments may be implemented without requiring access to such personal information data. That is, the various embodiments of the technology are not rendered inoperable by the absence of all or a portion of such personal information data.

Claims (20)

1. A method of communicating in a wireless network, comprising:
Receiving a first signal by a user equipment (UE);
and communicating, by the UE, a second signal with one or more Radio Access Networks (RANs) of the wireless network;
the first signal includes a plurality of Physical Downlink Shared Channels (PDSCHs) transmitted in a PDSCH opportunity, and resource block indexes corresponding to the plurality of PDSCHs provide a prioritization indication ;
the second signal includes a semi-static Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request ( HARQ ) codebook;
11. A method of communicating, wherein the UE performs a mapping of a plurality of Acknowledgement/Not Acknowledgement (A/N) messages to a plurality of fields of the semi-static HARQ codebook, the order of the mapping being determined based on the prioritization indication . The method of claim 1 , wherein the communicating comprises transmitting the second signal using grant-based resources based on the prioritization indication . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first signal includes one or more bit fields corresponding to the prioritization indication . 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first signal is a resource configuration for a downlink (DL) assignment, an uplink (UL) grant, or a UL configuration grant, and the first signal includes one or more bit fields corresponding to the prioritization indication for transmission over resources specified by the first signal. The method of claim 1, wherein the first signal is a resource configuration for a UL configuration grant, the UE is configured for UL carrier aggregation, and the method further comprises prioritizing, by the UE, power allocations for transmissions in a primary cell (PCell) over power allocations for transmissions in a primary secondary cell (PSCell). 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second signal is a grant-based PUSCH signal, and the priority indication for scheduling the grant-based PUSCH signal is determined by the UE based on the first signal with T _GB ≦ T _GF or P _GF ≦ NT _GB , where T _GB represents a duration of the grant-based PUSCH signal, T _GF is a duration of grant-free resources, P _GF is a grant-free resource period, and N is an integer greater than 0. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating, in the second signal, one or more of a PDSCH, a PUCCH, a PUSCH, or a HARQ signal. the plurality of A/N messages correspond to a plurality of unicast PDSCHs that overlap in time;
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the semi-static HARQ codebook has M N fields, where M represents a number of the plurality of unicast PDSCHs and N is a number of PDSCH opportunities. The method of claim 1, wherein the second signal includes data transmitted by a Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) service. The method of claim 1, wherein the second signal is an out-of-order (OOO) HARQ feedback signal associated with PDSCH scheduling or associated with OOO PUSCH scheduling. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second signal is an urgent Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback signal, and the communicating includes reporting the urgent Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback signal before reporting an earlier non-urgent HARQ feedback signal based on the prioritization indication . A user equipment (UE) for communicating in a wireless network, comprising:
a memory storing one or more configuration instructions, the one or more configuration instructions including a prioritization indication ;
a receiver configured to receive a first signal from the wireless network, the first signal including a plurality of Physical Downlink Shared Channels (PDSCHs) transmitted in a PDSCH opportunity , and resource block indexes corresponding to the plurality of PDSCHs provide a prioritization indication;
a transmitter configured to transmit a second signal to the wireless network, the second signal including a semi-static hybrid automatic repeat request ( HARQ ) codebook; and
a processor coupled to the memory,
performing a mapping of a plurality of Acknowledgement/Non-Acknowledgement (A/N) messages to a plurality of fields of the semi-static HARQ codebook, the order of the mapping being determined based on the prioritization indication ;
a processor configured to communicate the second signal via the transmitter;
A user equipment comprising: The user equipment of claim 12 , wherein the communicating comprises transmitting the second signal using grant-based resources based on the prioritization indication . The user equipment of claim 12 , wherein the first signal includes one or more bit fields corresponding to the prioritization indication . The user equipment of claim 12, wherein the second signal is an out-of-order (OOO) HARQ feedback signal associated with PDSCH scheduling or associated with OOO PUSCH scheduling. The user equipment of claim 12, wherein the second signal includes data transmitted by an Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) service. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors, the one or more processors, when the instructions are executed, performing:
receiving a first signal including a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmitted in a PDSCH opportunity , resource block indexes corresponding to the plurality of PDSCH providing a prioritization indication ;
communicating a second signal, the second signal including a semi-static Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request ( HARQ ) codebook, the UE configured to perform a mapping of a plurality of Acknowledge/Not Acknowledge (A/N) messages to a plurality of fields of the semi-static HARQ codebook, an order of the mapping being determined based on the prioritization indication ;
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to: 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the first signal includes one or more bit fields corresponding to the prioritization indication . 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the first signal includes one or more bit fields corresponding to the prioritization indication for transmission over resources specified by the first signal. the plurality of A/N messages correspond to a plurality of unicast PDSCHs that overlap in time;
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the semi-static HARQ codebook has M N fields, where M represents a number of the plurality of unicast PDSCHs and N is a number of PDSCH opportunities.